


Baby Blues

by Baron_Barkonnen



Series: Swing My Way Into Your Heart [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Consensual Sex, Consensual Underage Sex, Discussion of Abortion, Discussion of Adoption, Eventual semi-graphic childbirth, F/M, Michelle Jones Needs a Hug, Michelle Jones is a Good Mom, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is a Good Dad, Teen Angst, Teen Romance, Teenage Parents, Teenage Pregnancy, Unplanned Pregnancy, teen drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:14:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 37,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23510677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baron_Barkonnen/pseuds/Baron_Barkonnen
Summary: Peter and Michelle have a night of passion... followed by a morning of passion... A lot of passion, but not the best birth control unfortunately. Accidents happen. This one just happens to come with a forty week gestation time and a lifetime commitment. But Peter is Spider-man. He's dealt with the literal end of the world, so surely he can navigate being a teenage parent, right? And Michelle... well, she's just Michelle, but she's totally awesome in her own right. Together they can handle this, right? Well, kinda. No one, no matter who they are or what they say, is ever quite ready to become a parent.
Relationships: Betty Brandt/Ned Leeds (background), Happy Hogan/May Parker (background), Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker
Series: Swing My Way Into Your Heart [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1690324
Comments: 42
Kudos: 212





	1. The Calm Before the Storm...

_Thump-thump_

_Thump-thump_

_Thump-thump_

Peter slowly became aware of a rhythmic sound coming from his pillow. Only… he wasn’t laying his head down on a pillow was he? It was too firm in some places, but in others softer than anything he’d ever touched before.

Also, he slowly became aware of something running through his hair. A comb? No, it was too gentle… Fingers maybe? Whatever they were, they played with his curls and massaged his scalp so very deliciously. He hummed in contentment, burying his face deeper in his not-pillow. Whatever it was, it smelled amazing. Like, herbal… with a subtle hint of citrus underneath it all. 

Slowly, ever so slowly, Peter started to wake, and with it he realized he wasn’t snuggling the world’s greatest pillow… It was a person… Then, he suddenly remembered what happened the night before. His eyes shot open, looking up to see MJ, her eyes half-lidded, a content smile upon her perfect lips.

“Hey,” she whispered, still playing with his hair.

“Hmmm… Hey yourself,” Peter replied, shimmying up her body to plant a kiss on her neck.

He pulled away after a moment, whispering, “You know, I forgot something last night…”

“Oh,” she sighed, “What’s that?”

“I spent so much time between your legs, I forgot two very important somethings…” His hands moved up her body, cupping her breasts through the thin fabric of her negligee nightgown.

“ _O~ooh_ , you are,” she gasped as he lightly pinched her nipples through the silk, “Insatiable… I like it… Round two?”

MJ asked, and Peter delivered. They spent the better part of the morning love-making, her poor headboard really taking a battering as the bed shook like it was in a 8.0 earthquake. They switched it up after a while, MJ riding his cock with reckless abandon. Then when they got bored of that, MJ got on her hands and knees and Peter pounded her from behind. And then eventually they moved on to a more ‘porn-y’ positions, with MJ laying on her side, her leg hooked over Peter’s shoulder… It was fucking amazing, literally. But eventually MJ had to throw in the towel.

“P-peter! I-I like sex as much as the next gal, but seriously… I think we’re on like, round twelve… C-can w-we have a break?”

Twelve(ish) rounds in three hours. Peter had an insane refractory period, that was for damned sure. He nodded, helping MJ unhook her leg from his shoulder.

She just… layed there on bed for a minute… Panting to get her breath back.

“You okay, Em?” Peter asked as he pulled his boxers up his legs.

“How… are you… not exhausted?” MJ said breathlessly.

“I dunno. Probably because of the super endurance that comes with my super strength?”

MJ laughed, “F-fuck… you’re a tiger… An absolute tiger…”

Peter checked his phone, seeing that it was-

“One o’clock! Holy crap, I hope your mom didn’t hear us…”

“You dummy, if she was home there’s no way she _couldn’t_ hear my screaming. I’m surprised the neighbors haven’t called in.” MJ delighted in how cherry red Peter’s cheeks and ears turned. 

MJ checked her phone, seeing a series of texts from her mom. “Try to keep yourself from having an embarrassment induced heart attack. Mom is… actually I feel really bad for her. She’s having an extended shift at the hospital doing hospice care.”

“Hospice care?” 

Michelle sighed as she got up. “Yeah. Someone’s dying and she’s giving end of life care, basically.”

“O-oh…” Peter sighed, nervously rubbing the back of his head.

“There isn’t really anything she can do, she’s just trying to make the last hours of their life as comfortable as possible. Cancer is a bitch.”

“Fuck cancer,” Peter agreed, pausing to think for a moment. “So uh.... What now?”

Michelle winced as she stood up. It was an entirely pleasurable sensation, feeling Peter’s hot cum spurt into her eager tunnel. But later on… when it was still warm and slimy and grossly dripping down her thighs… 

“I dunno, but right now I desperately need to pee and take a shower.”

So they took turns showering and dressed for the day… then stopped and paused.

“Kay…” Peter began, “What now?”

Michelle hummed, biting her lip before it came to her. “Hey, you know what? We never finished Cabin in the Woods. We could _actually_ watch it this time instead of pretending to watch it while we feel each other up.”

Peter snapped his fingers, “Can we make lunch first? It just now hit me how starving I am.” 

Michelle smirked, “Yeah, three hours of non-stop fuckery will do that to a person. Come on, let’s cook something together.”

‘Something’ turned out to be an impromptu vegetarian stir-fry. MJ did most of the work, all Peter really did was watch in awe as MJ worked. She was no professional chef, but her knifework was way, way better than anything Peter had ever seen before.

Less than an hour later they were hunched over their plates, sitting at the couch and watching what turned out to be a really, really good scary movie…

* * *

Monica Jones really, really loved her job. She got to help people, honestly help people, in their most dire times of need. And that made all the hospital politics and frantic work worth it. Sometimes though, hell, a lot of the time, it was really, really rough.

Like today, when a long time patient of hers had finally began to succumb to their brain cancer. The elderly ninety something year old woman, Lyra, had no one. Back when she was more coherent, Monica tried to get some family information out of Lyra. Unfortunately, everyone she listed was either dead… or didn’t care enough about her to be with her as she passed.

So Monica stayed, listened, and learned all about this little old woman who lived so long, and finally had so little time left. Over the course of seven months, she learned that the old woman was born on Hawaii, the descendant of one of the plantation owners that rallied the coup d’etat against Queen Liliʻuokalani and forced her to cede sovereignty over to the United States. 

Lyra wasn’t proud of her family history. In fact, she was rather disgusted by her ancestors actions. But that was in the past, something she couldn’t change. What she could do was live her life the best way she could, and endeavor to be better than those who came before her. She trained as a nurse, and treated the survivors of Pearl Harbor. And later, she snuck aboard a navy ship bound for the Philippines, and spent the rest of the war there, tending to the survivors of Camp O’Donnell. 

She saw a lot of horrors at that camp. She split her time between helping the emaciated and tortured survivors… and trying to identify the thousands of people buried in shallow mass graves. Most of those under her care survived… but many did not. And many of the bodies she exhumed were so decayed that without extensive dental records she’d have no hope of ever identifying them...

After the war ended, she stayed in the Philippines for a few years to help the war torn country rebuild. Eventually she came back home, but she could find no peace in Hawaii. She left, moved to San Francisco to start a family. She married a smart, bookish young man; a veteran of the war in Europe. Both her and Harry so desperately wanted children, but the only time they were able to conceive ended with a stillbirth. It destroyed Harry, who could never quite readjust to life after the war. The loss of their child-to-be was the final straw. Harry took his own life later on that year.

Lyra thought about joining him… a lot actually. But never could go through with it. Instead, she continued to devote her life to helping others. She moved to New York city, and worked as a councilor for inner-city youths, helping them back on better paths for their lives. Eventually after forty years of that, she retired and worked part-time at a library for the next couple years. It’s funny, but she survived World War II, the many attacks on New York, the horrific events of the Blip… but… it was the cigarettes that did it. Seventy something years of smoking like a chimney, and she developed lung cancer that spread to her brain...

“Well, dearie, I’ve run out of things to talk about,” Lyra said one day. “And I just realized I spent so long blatherin’ on to you… but I never let you talk in return. So, dearie, do you have anything to get off your chest?”

Monica smiled nervously as she packed up Lyra’s old sheets to be cleaned, “Oh, I dunno…”

“What’s not to know about? I’m dyin’ dearie. Anythin’ you tell me, I’ll literally take to my grave. So, do you have anything you’ve always wanted to get off your chest? Somethin’ that’s been weighin’ you down?”

So Monica told her story. About how she had a modest middle class upbringing in Georgia. About how when she was fourteen years old she let herself get swept up by a high school senior. About how the summer of her freshman year, he convinced her to have sex with him. Unprotected, of course, because he hated the feel of condoms and her parents were too prudish to allow her to take birth control.

She told Lyra about how she got pregnant at fourteen, how her ‘boyfriend’ up and moved out of town when she told him. Her parents, being very strict southern baptists, kicked her out of course. At fourteen, she was alone and pregnant and had nowhere to go… Until her great aunt Agnes heard about what had happened and scooped her up, taking her with her to her New York. 

Monica talked about how she was ostracized at her new school. Not only was she a black girl from the deep south, she was also very noticeably pregnant. No one actively bullied her, thank goodness, but no one wanted to be her friend either. She debated for a long time… the idea of… getting rid of it. She almost walked into an abortion clinic, but couldn’t quite make it through the doors. Monica got in touch with an adoption agency, but couldn’t quite bring herself to sign her unborn baby away… So… Lyra listened in rapt attention when Monica told her about when she went into labor at fifteen, and how after thirteen grueling hours she had a perfect baby girl.

She told her about how the only way she got through the loneliness of high school, the only shining light in her life at all really, was that happy, laughy little baby girl. Michelle was a dream to raise, Monica had to admit. Sure, she had her little tantrums, like any toddler did, but they were few and far between. 

Michelle almost made it easy, sticking it out through a lonely existence in high school. College was better. People matured, and she slowly started making friends. She had a small cohort of other girls she frequently talked to, who’d even help watch Michelle while Monica went to class. Eventually she stuck it out through college too, eventually earning a nursing degree. She got a job at Jamaica Hospital, which paid enough for her to raise her daughter as a single parent, and after that...

“Here I am,” Monica finished, one day… that fateful day. It was an odd coincidence that Lyra’s condition really started to decline as Monica finished telling the dying woman about her life. Lyra was offered a morphine pump, but she declined, wanting to be cognizant of her last days of life. Eventually it happened.

“Oh… what a wonderful story, dearie. I’m glad I was able to stick around to hear the ending… It was so sad for so long. I’m so happy you found it…” Lyra said, her well wrinkled eyelids slowly drifting shut.

“Found what, Lyra?”

The old woman smiled for the last time… “Peace…”

* * *

Monica Jones unlocked the front door of her apartment. Her eyes were red from crying, but despite that, she couldn’t help but smile as she spied Michelle and her boyfriend happy and laughing together on the couch.

Michelle heard the door open, and paused the movie. She turned to greet her mom, but froze when she saw the tears dried on her mother’s cheeks.

“It was Lyra wasn’t it?” Michelle asked ruefully.

All Monica could do was nod, and trudge her way to her room. She had worked a sixteen hour shift, but that wasn’t at all why she was so exhausted.

After a moment, Peter had to ask. “Whose Lyra?”

“Oh, one of mom’s older patients. She’d been taking care of her for a long time. I think since we Blipped back actually,” Michelle bit her lip. “I’m not surprised mom took it so hard. I think they got kinda close. She’d come home and tell me all about her. Lyra really did live an amazing life. Tragic, but amazing.”

Peter turned off the tv. “Do you think you could… tell me about her?”

Michelle shrugged, “Yeah, I think so. I might be a little fuzzy on the details. Mom knows the story better, so you might wanna ask her to fill in the gaps. Uh, when she’s in a better mood of course.”

So Michelle spent the rest of the day telling Lyra’s story… or, what she remembered of it, that is. Peter listened, totally entranced. Eventually though, he had to go on patrol… and from there, home. Michelle kissed him goodbye as he pulled on the mask, and watched him swing through the city until she finally lost track of him.

It got pretty late, and Michelle started on her nightly routine. Dinner, brush her teeth, read until she got drowsy, and take her birth control pills right before bed…

She paused in the middle of reaching for the drawer of her nightstand. She forgot to take her birth control pills last night. MJ shook her head. It… it wasn’t that bad. Missing one day wasn’t the end of the world. The hormones would continue to work, all she had to do was make sure to take two today… Wait…

“Fuck,” she muttered as she struggled to remember the last time she took her birth control.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck fuck….” she repeated to herself when she found her pill pack… only to find an entire row, and entire weeks worth still sitting nice and snug in their packaging. A week's worth that she should have taken by now...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was a long intro. To all of those wondering about my other multi-chapter stories, I haven't given up on them. I just... hit a bit of a creative wall with them right now. So I'm taking a little bit of a break, writing something a little different. I'll eventually get back to them, don't you worry. Anywho, if you can possibly find the time, comment if you can. I love getting feedback. Honestly, they really help motivate me. Well, that's it for me for now. Stay safe, stay sane, and like... be cool to each other? I guess? Anyway, bye bye now!


	2. Two Pink Lines

Despite initially freaking out that first night, Michelle calmed down by the next morning. She put the discovery of an entire week’s worth of untaken birth control pills at the back of her mind until eventually she forgot all about it. The next couple weeks passed in a blur. MJ went back to business as usual, reading, cooking, binge watching the next hot new shows during the day while Peter was on patrol, and inviting him to her bed at night.

He always finished patrol around 2 a.m., a curfew imposed by aunt May. And seeing as MJ seldom had anything important to do in the mornings, she’d stay up, waiting for him to slink in through her bedroom window. More often than not her mom would be at work, or sleeping in between long shifts, so they didn’t have to worry about her catching him crawling in through the window.

Despite writing off her early mistake with the missed birth control pills, Michelle had taken up physically setting an alarm on her phone at midnight to remind her to take her pill. And she did. Always. And when she experienced no early pregnancy symptoms, at least no obvious ones, she figured she was in the clear. Until one day…

* * *

Peter whooped as he swung by ropes of web shot from building to building, the New York skyscrapers whizzing by in dazzling blurs, reflecting the city lights in their huge panes of glass. That particular building happened to be a super high rise apartment complex, a new luxury building, if he wasn’t mistaken.

“Hey, keep the yells of elation to a minimum, dork. Don’t wanna wake the elite in their ivory towers now, do we?” MJ asked over his suit intercom.

“Oh right,” Peter actually whisper-whooped in reply, “~ _Wheeee~.”_

That elicited a snort and a goofy giggle from his girlfriend… that was punctuated by what sounded like a dry heave, then another… and another… then the sound of a headset being hurriedly tossed off a head, the sounds of hurried footsteps being barely picked up by the mic.

MJ quickly passed a bewildered looking May as she practically sprinted to the bathroom, making it just in time to projectile vomit quarter digested chinese food into the porcelain bowl. She panted to get her breath, before another wave of nausea hit her and she heaved, spewing more puke. Then another wave of nausea, and more throwing up, over and over again through the course of a gruelling hour.

The nauseated young girl spat a few times into the pukey water before standing on trembling legs. She brushed her teeth to get the acidic and bitter taste of bile out of her mouth, before going back to her ‘girlfriend in the chair duties.’

Unfortunately, Karen was knocked out of commission from the events of their Europe trip a month and a half ago, and was still being repaired by Stark Industries engineers. Peter needed support, which was normally filled in by Ned. But Ned had left on a family trip to the Philippines, and thus MJ was enlisted as his fill in. She did very well, for only having a week’s worth of hands on training by Ned and Peter. 

She slipped the headset back on. “Sorry ‘bout that tiger. Had to make an emergency trip to the bathroom…”

“U-uh, you sure you’re okay? You were gone for like, an hour…”

MJ nodded, then remembered Peter couldn’t see her. “Yeah, I’m fine. What did I miss?”

“Nothing much. I thought someone was breaking into an apartment, but it turns out their bratty kid had just locked them out. I spent forty minutes arguing with a toddler through a door, but eventually we got the situation handled.”

MJ bit her lip, “Hey, you might wanna observe the apartment for a little bit. It might be a domestic violence thing…”

“Yeah, I had the same thought. Sent in droney. It’s all good, but I’m gonna swing by tomorrow too just in case.”

“That’s good.” MJ checked the time. “Hey, Spider-guy. It’s 1:45.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m gonna make one final pass of the city and head back. You sure you’re okay, Em?”

Michelle nodded nervously… then again remembered Peter couldn’t see her. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”

Exactly eighteen minutes later Peter crawled into his bedroom through the window. He found MJ not sprawled out on his bed as usual, but setting up a makeshift bed of pillows and blankets on his floor.

“Alright, what’s going on?”

MJ smiled ruefully, “Well, since I think I might be coming down with something, I figured I shouldn’t be in bed with you right now…”

Peter pulled off the mask, shrugging out of the Spider-suit. “Oh, I don’t really get affected by normal viruses or bacteria anymore. Powers buffed my immune system too, I think.” 

“Oh… in that case,” Michelle sauntered over to his bed, shedding items of clothing as she went…

Peter drank in her form, shuddering in anticipation as she straddled him. “H-hey, I thought you were sick? You sure you’re up for this?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. The nausea went away almost as soon as it came,” MJ whispered as she ground her pelvis against his.

Peter groaned, leaning up to give MJ’s chest some attention, when she hissed and pulled his hands away.

“Sorry, tiger. I think the girls need a little break. I don’t know why but they’ve been a bit tender lately…”

“Oh, sure,” Peter said with mild disappointment

Despite the lack of boob action, they had a lovely night together. As MJ snuggled up to Peter’s chest, she couldn’t help but feel a certain kind of apprehension. Those symptoms were eerily similar to… but no, it couldn’t be… could it? She pondered the implications until eventually she drifted off into an uncertain sleep.

* * *

Peter drove up to MJ’s apartment complex in May’s old clunker of a Volvo. It was a few days after MJ filled in for Ned, and they wanted to go out on a stereotypical teenage date: A picnic in the park followed up by a movie.

**Hey lovely, I’m here. :)**

A few seconds later, MJ texted back:

**Oh, it’s nice to see you using proper grammar for once. I might just give the smiley a pass. Hold up a minute, I’ll be right out.**

A few minutes later, MJ was plopping herself in his passenger seat. She looked absolutely lovely, wearing the same summer dress she wore on their class summer trip… but something wasn’t quite right.

For one, she looked really, really tired. And two… he could hear something coming from her that wasn’t her normal heartbeat. It was a very fast fluttering sound… like the wing beats of a hummingbird, only underwater…

She very quickly noticed him staring. “Uh… what’s up tiger?”

Peter quickly shook his head, “It’s nothing.”

MJ bit her lip, “Yeah, I know it's the same dress from the opera thing. This is the only nice dress I own.”

The car’s engine sputtered to life and Peter began to drive. “Oh, it's not that. Um. Did you sleep okay?”

“No, no not really. I uh, spent the night worshipping the porcelain god, as it were.”

“We don’t have to-”

MJ cut him off, “I’m fine, dork. Don’t worry.”

“Are you sure-”

“I said I’m fine!” MJ practically yelled.

Peter winced, driving the rest of the way to the park in silence. MJ stared out the window, already feeling guilty about shouting at Peter. But paradoxically, she was too ashamed to immediately apologize.

They made it to the park without further incident, Peter awkwardly getting the picnic basket out of the back seat. As they walked into the park, Michelle finally broke the awkward silence that had been suffocating them for the better part of twenty minutes.

“Hey, I- Uh, I’m sorry for shouting at you earlier.”

Peter shrugged, “Hey, it’s no big-”

“B-because you’re always so nice to me and… and you don’t deserve it…” MJ sniffled hot tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.

“H-hey, It’s okay Em-”

She was full on sobbing now, “N-no! It’s not Oh-oh-okay! You’re such a sweetheart to me and I throw-ow it back in your face b-by being a s-sarcastic bi-hitch!”

“Hey, no, no, no, no, no.” Peter whispered as he engulfed her in a hug. “Em, your witty sarcasm is one of the biggest things I love about you. Even when it’s directed at me. Actually, _especially_ when it’s directed at me.”

MJ smiled, laughing into his neck as she hugged him back. And suddenly, the oppressive all encompassing despair that had been swallowing her up just… disappeared like summer rain. All of the sudden, she felt totally fine. Well, a little embarrassed by her outburst, but otherwise… fine. 

She pulled away, giggling as Peter leaned up to kiss the tears from her cheeks. “Okay, Casanova, I’m fine now.”

“You sure?” Peter asked, taken aback by her sudden change of demeanor.

“Yeah, let’s find a spot to eat. I’m starving.” 

They sat under the shade of a big oak tree. Peter laid out the blanket, and retrieved two wrapped deli sandwiches from the picnic basket.

“Are those sandwiches from Delmar’s?” MJ asked as she laid back.

Peter nodded, “A vegan number eleven for you, and a number five for me.”

“Extra pickles on both, right?” MJ asked, gratefully taking the parchment paper wrapped sandwich.

Peter nodded.

MJ sighed as she took her first bite, “You know me so well.” She finished it in record time. 

Peter watched her devour it, feeling a mixture of fascination and horror as one second there was a sandwich, and then suddenly there wasn’t.

“Y-you uh, didn’t pack any sides by any chance?” MJ asked.

Peter shook his head, pausing to actually chew and swallow before answering. “Uh… no… sorry.”

MJ awkwardly bit her lip. “Uh… c-can we stop at Delmar’s on our way to the movie?”

“Sure…” he paused. There was that sound again, like submerged hummingbird wingbeats… “Y-yeah,” he continued. “We should have enough time.”

They finished their little picnic, made their impromptu stop at Delmar’s and made it just in time to sit down as the lights dimmed.

**_Two households, both alike in dignity,_ **

**_In fair Verona where we lay our scene,_ **

**_From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,_ **

**_And civil blood makes civil hands unclean…_ **

That’s right. They had chosen for their date movie, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 masterpiece… _Romeo and Juliet_. It was such a lucky coincidence that there was a showing at their local single-screen theater. It was a small, but quaint theater, with a single auditorium with less than a hundred seats. A hundred seats, all to themselves because no one else bought tickets. It was sad for the theater, but perfect for them.

“This is so much better now that Mr. Harrington isn’t pausing every other scene.” Peter said, taking a handful of popcorn. He turned the modest bucket towards MJ. She was gonna take a handful… then she caught a whiff of the buttery, starchy smell and felt another wave of nausea overtake her.

What the fuck was that? She normally loved popcorn… “N-no thanks, tiger,” she said, breathing heavily to force the nausea down.

_Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump_

Peter paused. There it was again… that fluttery sound… “Uh, I know I’ve asked you this like a million times today, but… are you sure you’re alright?”

MJ huffed, trying to tamp down her frustration. “Yes! I’m sure I’m okay… Please… can you… can you just drop it for now?” 

Peter nodded, sighed, and went back to watching the movie.

Again, MJ felt guilt bubbling up in her chest. “Hey, dork. Don’t take this the wrong way…” she began.

Peter braced, expecting the worst.

“But like, I’d drop your skinny ass in an instant for Olivia Hussey circa 1968,” she said, motioning towards the screen. 

Juliet was staring at the camera, her enchanting hazel eyes stealing the entire show.

Peter sighed in relief. “Oh, trust me Em. The feeling’s mutual.”

MJ giggled, happy that her own way of lightening the mood seemed to work. “Oh, you’d break up with me for Olivia?”

“Maybe…” He paused, “Definitely, if it was for a young Michael York instead.”

They continued watching the movie, keeping a running commentary throughout the movie. Their little hiccup at the beginning aside, it was a truly lovely time.

* * *

“Hey Peter?” MJ asked on their way home. “Can we stop at Delmar’s again?”

Peter gave her a questioning look. “Oh um. Sure… but I think his deli is closed…”

MJ shook her head. “I know… I just uh… there’s a type of soda that I’ve only seen him carry and I’m jonesing for it hard right now.”

“Oh, right. Sure.”

“Hey, um. Just drop me off at the curb and circle ‘round. That way you don’t have to worry about parking.”

Peter nodded, doing as she said, but silently wondering why. It wasn’t like it was particularly hard to find parking around Delmar’s… it had an attached parking lot, a rarity for that part of the city.

MJ hopped out of the car and walked into the bodega as confidently as she could. She was just going in for a couple of sodas… and a pregnancy test or three. No big deal, no big deal.

To Delmar’s credit, he rang her up without a second look or awkward question. That was why she liked him so much. He cared about his customers enough to know when, and most importantly, when _not_ to talk to them.

“Thanks Mr. Delmar,” she said as she left.

“No problem kid. No problem at all.”

She only had to wait for a second before Peter completed his circle and picked her up.

“Here, dork.” She passed him a bottle of lime rickey, the soda she could only ever find at Delmars.

Peter took it gratefully. “Oh, I know why you can’t find this anywhere else. This is Mr. Delmar’s personal recipe. He bottles it in-house.”

Michelle sighed as she took a sip. Oh, she had missed that sour-sweet taste. She hadn’t been lying when she said she was craving it. “Oh, that explains it,” she said as she laid the plastic bag between her legs. If Peter noticed there was something weighing it down despite Michelle already taking out the sodas, he didn’t say anything. Thankfully.

Peter started to drive into the parking lot adjoining her apartment complex, but MJ stopped him. “Uh, you can drop me off here, Peter. I… you’re right, I have been feeling a lttle sick lately. And, um, I’d like to spend the night alone, if you don’t mind…”

“Oh,” Peter nodded, just a little dejected. “Sure. Yeah, I understand. Um. I hope you feel better…”

Michelle gave him a sad smile as she gently kissed his cheek. “Thanks for understanding baby…”

* * *

“How was your date, baby?” Monica asked as Michelle walked through the front door.

“Oh, uh. It was great. I had an amazing time,” MJ said hurriedly as she rushed to the bathroom, Monica giving her daughter a questioning look.

“Really? You seem-”

MJ interrupted her mother, “Yeah, yeah. I just really gotta go to the bathroom, sorry.”

She practically slammed the door, and with shaking hands reached into the bag hooked around her arm and retrieved the test stick.

Thankfully, her mother’s profession meant that there was no shortage of tiny plastic cups in their medicine cabinet. Her trembling hands meant she certainly would have made a mess had she gone with the more common method.

She peed into the tiny cup, placed the tip of the stick in… and waited on baited breath. 

“F-fuck…” she whispered as she saw the two, very clear, very dark lines. T-that didn’t mean anything though. False positives happened all the time… right?

Thankfully, she didn’t have any trouble peeing for a second test. And a few minutes later… that one too showed positive.

Monica raised her brow as her daughter rushed to the kitchen and chugged half a dozen cups of water, then returned to the bathroom without a word.

“No… no, no, no, no…” MJ whispered as the third pregnancy test returned positive, despite resting in a tiny cup of liquid so light it didn’t even look like pee.

Michelle dropped three positive pregnancy tests onto the coffee table, the plastic clattering against the vintage hardwood.

“Mama…” MJ whispered as tears poured down her cheeks. “I’m sorry…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there we have it. I hope I portrayed Michelle's mood swings well. Cuz like... I wanted to make them obvious, but I also didn't wanna make her seem hysterical either. The 'hysterical pregnant woman' trope is one that I actually kind of despise. Yes, pregnant women often have hormonal mood swings, but I hate it that they're often played for laughs or make the woman seem insane or something. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it. If you do, please comment. Hell, comment even if you didn't. I don't mind criticism as long as its constructive. Anywho, that's me done for now. Stay inside if you can. If you can't, then try to stay as safe as possible. And I'll see you guys in the next chapter!


	3. Figuring Things Out

Monica stared at the three small plastic sticks scattered about her coffee table. Then she looked at her daughter, still silent.

“M-mama,” Michelle gasped through her sobs. “Say something.  _ Please… _ ”

Despite her plea, her mother said nothing, did nothing… just stared at empty space for a full minute, before suddenly standing without warning. 

“How could you let this happen? God  _ fucking _ dammit, Michelle! Didn’t I teach you better? For  _ fucks sake _ ! You’re supposed to do better than me!” Her mother roared, “You’re supposed to  _ be  _ better than me!”

“I know… I know…” Michelle sobbed as she sunk to the floor. “I know,” she whispered as she pulled her legs to her chest.

Monica gasped for breath. Suddenly it felt like there was no more air in the world. “F-fuck. I can’t be here anymore…” She stormed out of the small apartment, slamming the door as she left.

“I’m sorry…” Michelle whispered as she sobbed alone in the empty apartment.

* * *

“Hey Peter, you’re home?” May asked as she walked in the front door. She had been working late at the office, arguing with construction magnates on building material prices. She’d managed to secure the funds to expand the shelter created solely for people displaced by the Blip, but construction companies were trying their hardest to upsell her. She had expected for Peter to already be at MJ’s by the time she got home…

“Yeah, MJ’s still sick and she wanted a night to herself to recover.” 

“Oh, she’s still sick? Poor girl,” May replied. “Was the date okay despite her being ill?”

“Yeah… it was fine. Well…” Peter trailed off.

“Well?”

“Uh, she seemed,” Peter sighed, “I dunno. Not like herself. She got kinda snappy at me. Then when she apologized she started crying? But like, it wasn’t that big a deal... Then she was fine again all of the sudden.”

May slowly sat down. “And…?”

“And… she ate way more than she normally does, but that could be because she spent the previous night throwing up.”

May nodded in shock, for her the pieces of the puzzle already came together, while Peter was just now starting to figure it out.

“And…” His eyes suddenly widened, before he let out a shocked gasp. “Fuck I’m an idiot.” He actually started to cry. “Oh my god, that’s what that was…”

“What, Peter?”

He was earnestly crying now. “N-nothing… I uh, I just gotta be alone…”

Peter practically ran to his room, collapsing onto the bed. He stared at the darkened ceiling for what felt like hours… until May gently knocked on his door.

“Peter, MJ’s here…”

He shot up suddenly as May let MJ in, being kind enough to shut the door and give the two some privacy.

“P-peter…” MJ began, her voice wavering uncharacteristically.

“I already know.”

“W-what?”

Tears threatened to spill down his cheeks as Peter gasped, “I can hear it.” He became consciously aware of it, even as he said it, a rapid fluttery-buzzy sound. Now that he was specifically listening for it, he could even pinpoint where it was coming from… A point six or so inches above her pelvis...

MJ slowly walked towards the bed, sitting down next to him. “H-hear what?”

“The heartbeat. Well, i-it’s not a heartbeat yet. It’s just the cells that will eventually  _ become  _ the heart-”

He was cut off by Michelle collapsing on top of him, absolutely  _ sobbing _ into his chest.

“H-hey,” he whispered as he ran his fingers through her hair and rubbed small circles on her back. “It’s okay. No matter what you choose, I support you.”

“I-I… I’m s-s-orry...,” she hiccuped before mewling into Peter’s tear soaked t-shirt, “ _ I don’t know what to do!” _

Peter started rocking her back and forth. “Th-that’s okay too. We’ll figure it out, Em. Will figure this out together…”

* * *

While the young couple talked it out, May went looking for Monica. When MJ showed up at her door, cheeks tear stained, May had already feared the worst. She thought she knew Monica… but to run out on her daughter like that… Well, she wanted to hear her side of the story, at the very least, before exploding at her.

**Hey Monica, it's May. I think we need to talk.**

She only had to wait a few seconds before she got a reply.

**Okay.**

To Mays surprise, Monica texted her the address of a skeezy  _ dive bar _ of all places. May got there in record time, pausing at the door to calm herself down before marching in.

“Alright, lady. That’s your seventh shot in half an hour.” The bartender said as he passed  _ another _ round of tequila to the only patron at the bar.

“Tha’s righ’. An’ keep ‘em comin’.” Monica slurred, her Georgian accent starting to come through in her drunken state.

“No can do, lady. You’re cut off.”

“Fuck you.”

The bartender took it in stride, “Hey, all I’m doin’ is tryin’ to look out for my only… customer…” He trailed off as May sat down next to the inebriated mother.

“What’ll ya have?” 

May sighed. Was she really doing this right now? Fuck it, yes she was. “Your strongest whiskey, on the rocks, and a moment alone with her,” she said, motioning to Monica, who by now had already thrown back her latest shot of tequila.

“Alright,” he said, passing her a tumbler. “But I don’t want no trouble in my bar, ya hear?”

May sighed. As angry as she was, as much as she kind of wanted to, she wasn’t there to fight. “There won’t be any trouble.”

“I don’ wanna fight ‘neithuh” Monica slurred.

“Alright…” the bartender cringed as he walked out of direct earshot. He did keep an eye on them, however.

“So…” May began.

“So~ooo…” Monica slurred.

May decided to go for the throat right away. “Why the fuck are you here, Monica?”

“Wh-what?” 

“Why are you here, at a sleazy bar instead of, I don’t know, helping your daughter?” May spat. “What the fuck?! You can’t just-”

“ _ I know!” _ Monica roared back. “Don’chu  _ fuckin’ _ lecture me like I don’t know what I fuckin’ did. Fuckin’ hell. I didn’t leave to  _ hurt my baby! _ I left because… fuck…” Monica panted, desperately trying to catch her breath… but there was no breath to catch. “F-fuck…” She stumbled off the bar stool, sinking to the floor.

“Hey,” May was right next to her in an instant, “Hey, slow down… breathe, slow deep breaths…”

Monica gasped, consciously making the effort to take slower, deeper breaths, until finally she calmed down. 

“H-hey, uh. I’m sorry I yelled. Can you tell me what’s really going on?” May asked as she rubbed Monica’s back.

Monica nodded, her voice slurring a little as she talked. “Didju know my parents kicked me out?”

May shook her head. She kind of suspected that might have been the case, but she never directly asked.

“Yeah, when I tol’ ‘em… I knew they’d be mad but… I nevuh expected them to…” She screwed her eyes shut, wiping the hot tears away. “They gave me two ‘ours to pack up all my shit.. Then they drove me out to the middle of downtown Atlanta and left me there. ‘To walk the streets like the whore I was,’ they said.”

May shook her head, “You don’t have to go on…” She could tell the young woman was on the verge of a post traumatic stress episode.

Monica nodded, “Thank you…”

May bit her lip. “But I think you need to talk to your daughter. You need to explain this to her, not me.”

May hefted Monica onto her unsteady feet, and let her lean on her for support. “What do I owe you?” May said to the bartender.

“Nothing,” he squeaked, dabbing tears away with a dirty rag. “It’s on the house.” He tried to give the two women privacy, but holy crap, the bar was only thirty feet long.

* * *

Peter spent the next two hours trying to calm Michelle down, while trying to keep it together himself. Eventually she calmed down enough to be able to speak semi-coherent sentences, at the very least.

“So… I think we both established we don’t know what to do just yet,” Peter began as he continued to run his fingers through her hair. He was currently sitting on his bed, MJ’s head in his lap.

MJ groaned, “Understatement of the god damned century, nerd.”

Peter nodded, “Yeah. So… well…” He didn’t even know if this was the right way to approach this, but it was the only way he knew how. “Pros and cons of having a baby at seventeen, go!”

“Way to put me on the spot!” MJ yelled as she slapped his chest. 

“Okay… Ow, for one-” 

“You’re fine, you have super powers.”

“Still hurt,” Peter complained, rubbing his chest. “Here’s a better idea. We’ll go through the pros and cons of each scenario: Having a baby at seventeen, giving them up for adoption… or having an abortion.” His voice caught a little bit at the end. 

MJ was a little taken aback, “A-actually… that’s kinda a good idea, nerd. Okay, how about we start with the ‘actually having a baby’ scenario. We’ll each say a pro, then a con, until we run out of ideas, then we’ll go to the next scenario, until we make our decision.”

Peter nodded, “Right. So… first pro of having a baby…” He smiled softly down at her, “We get to have a little human, one that has some features of each of us… we get to teach them stuff and like… watch them grow…”

MJ sniffed. When he put in such hopeful, optimistic, if just a tad simple terms… It sounded so wonderful... “T-that’s like, three pros. But I get what you’re saying. My turn,” She smirked mischievously. “I get to order you around and you can’t tell me no.”

“Wait, that’s not-” 

“Nope,” she cut him off, “It’s like, a law. Pregnant ladies get special privileges. Now, first con, go:

Peter scratched his head, “I dunno, like… We’ll have to survive high school. They’ll spread rumors and like… you know what our high school is like.”

Michelle sighed, “Yeah… Okay my turn. Um… I’ll have to be pregnant for somewhere around thirty two to thirty four more weeks and like, all that comes with that…” Her eyes widened, “Fuck, I’ll have to give birth…”

Peter winced sympathetically, “Yeah, there’s that. Next pro…” he sighed, “Uh, we won’t have to be alone? Like, we got friends to help us out… Ned would be positively  _ elated _ and like, money doesn’t  _ have _ to be an issue. Cuz like, I know Mrs. Stark. The second she finds out, she’ll  _ want _ to pay for everything.”

Michelle quirked an eyebrow. “No shit, really?”

Peter nodded, “Yeah. She insisted whatever college I go to, the second I get accepted she’ll pay for all of it. I argued, honestly argued, about it for like a week about it with her. She actually threatened to hack the college’s financial system and pay for it all with or without my permission.”

“So like, first off-” MJ began.

“I know, I shouldn’t take charity-” Peter cut her off.

“That’s not what I was gonna say,” She countered. “What I was gonna say before I got rudely interrupted was… like… fuck. We’re in one hell of a privileged position. Seriously, who else gets to say their potential kid could be bankrolled by a multi-billionaire... I… honestly don’t mind the idea of her paying for everything. Like, that’s one  _ huge _ pro you listed, nerd.”

Peter winced, “Yeah, but like, I feel guilty. Because like you said, no one else gets to be in the position we’re in. Like… I think I’d combust from guilt if I ever met another pair of teen parents…”

“Yeah… that’s kinda a con too. So, since you listed something that’s a pro  _ and _ a con, I’m gonna list a pro and a con too.” MJ paused, considering something, before smiling up at him. “Oh I got one that’s kinda both. We’ll have a baby together…”

Peter did his best impression of MJ’s famous deadpan expression. “That’s really vague. Explain please.”

Michelle shrugged, “Well, I gotta say nerd. If there’s one person I’d  _ have _ to have a baby with, I’m glad it would be you… But… We’d for all intents and purposes be married from this point on, and like… I dunno, what if we decide we don’t wanna be together anymore like, ten years down the line, when we’re ‘older and wiser’,” she said, actually making air quotes.

“Hmmm…” Peter nodded, “That  _ is _ a big deal. Well, say we do have the baby. Can we make a promise right now? Let’s promise that if we do think the relationship between  _ us _ isn’t working out, we’ll split up. Because like, we shouldn't be obligated to stay together ‘for the kids’. Of course, we’d still work together to co-parent our kid. But if we don’t feel like its working at some point, we don’t have to stay together in a romantic sense.”

MJ smiled, “Yeah, I can get behind that.” They actually shook on it.

“Okay, next pro-” Peter tried to continue, but MJ interrupted him.

“Actually… Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Peter said, just a little bit nervous of what she was going to ask.

MJ bit her lip, suddenly apprehensive. She took  _ another _ long, deep breath. “Say we have this baby. Are you gonna be one of those dad’s who sits in a waiting room while I do all the work-”

Peter smirked, “Are you kidding? If everything goes well, I’d kinda wanna catch the baby…”

MJ looked up at him with surprise, “Are you sure? Cuz like, we went to the same health class, they made us sit through that birth video. You remember what that's like…”

“Em, what makes you think I haven’t already helped deliver a baby?”

Michelle laughed at the absurdity of it… until she realized- “Wait, you’re serious?”

Peter nodded.

“Okay, you’re gonna have to tell me this story,” Michelle said.

“Remember a few months ago when the Shocker escaped from prison and knocked out half of Manhattan’s power grid? Well I had just recaptured him when I heard someone frantically screaming in a nearby apartment complex. I went to investigate, and I found a woman naked lying on the floor of her living room... giving birth. Literally, I could see the head. I had Karen call the ambulance, but there was no way they’d get there in time. I had Karen there to talk me through the mechanics of it, but yeah, I helped someone have a baby.”

“Oh…” Michelle whispered, in total awe.“Well… That kinda settles it then…” They had addressed all her major concerns, support/money, their relationship in the future, and the actual mechanics of having a baby… so all that was left was… “Peter… I think I wanna have the baby.”

Peter exhaled in relief, “Good because um… I realized that too.”

Michelle grabbed his shirt. “But you better not skip out on me the second things get rough. M-my… My biological father made the same promise to my mom, but he left the  _ instant _ things didn’t go his way.”

“Em. I honestly… I don’t think I could live with myself if I left you alone with my kid. Seriously. I honestly think I’d rather die.”

“Wow. That’s uh… Okay then. Let’s do it. Let's have a baby together-” Michelle said, just as they heard the front door open. 

May’s gentle voice echoed through the apartment, “Peter, MJ… can you come out here for a second.”

* * *

They gave each other a nervous look, before nodding. Hand in hand, they walked out to the living room.

May was there… and so was Monica. She immediately leapt from the couch and wrapped her baby up in a hug.

“I’m s-so sorry I yelled at you, baby. I remember what it’s like, and that was the last thing I should have done…”

MJ returned the hug, burying her face in her mom’s neck, unable to say anything because she was so relieved.

Monica continued, “W-when you showed up with those test sticks I just… I saw you and… I was you, does that make sense? Like, I was fourteen years old and it was happening all over again-”

“Mom… I get it. I… Honestly that was my fuck up as much as yours….” She remembered how hard it was for her mother to explain the circumstances surrounding her conception. She should have realized throwing down a couple of test sticks and showing up a teary eyed mess could have been triggering for her mother. “I… probably shouldn’t have just sprung that on you like that.”

Peter hugged them both, just to lighten the mood. May joined him a second later. And a few seconds after that, everything was okay again.

“So,” MJ said, once everyone was sitting down around the living room to properly talk. “Peter and I have decided…”

“That we wanna have the baby,” he finished for her.

May, who was totally supportive no matter what they chose, simply nodded.

Monica, however, was a little more apprehensive.

“Okay… let me preface this by telling you I’ll support you both no matter what you end up choosing… but… I think you should really know the realities of your situation.” She paused, turning to her daughter. “Shelly-”

Peter laughed. He couldn’t help it. May silenced him with a quick jab to the ribs.

“Michelle,” Monica began again, “Your body is going to change in ways you can’t begin to imagine. Every pregnancy is different, but if yours is  _ anything _ like mine was, I’m going to let you know now, it won’t be easy.”

“I know, mama. You’re right, I don’t really know _exactly_ what’s going to happen to me, but thanks to our schools rather comprehensive health program, I think I have a pretty good idea what I’m possibly in for,” Michelle said with finality.

“Okay… secondly…” Monica took a deep breath. She knew this was going to be a point of contention, considering who was currently in the room, but she had to say it… “Peter. I know you’re nothing like Charles,” That got Michelle to _really_ pay attention. She never knew the name of her biological father until now… Monica continued, “But you’re both very, very… indescribably young and inexperienced. A few years from now you might decide you don’t want to be in a relationship anymore-”

Peter took the opportunity to chime in, “Oh, we know. We already made a promise to each other that if either of us think it’s not working out, we’ll try to split up as amicably as we can and continue to co-parent our child. Together, but separated at the same time… uh, does that make sense?”

That actually got both Monica and May a little choked up with pride, in a weird sense. It took a great deal of maturity to admit that a relationship might not work.

“Well… that settles it,” Monica had to admit. “Now, money will be a little tight, but I think between May and I we should-”

“Oh, money won’t be an issue, Mrs. Jones.” Peter quipped.

“One,” Monica said only slightly annoyed, “Don’t call me ‘Mrs. Jones'. It reminds me of an awful Billy Paul song. And two, how can you be sure, Peter?”

Peter sighed. He had been debating this for a while, and came to realize he probably should rip the band-aid of quick. “Because I’m Spider-man and I have connections in Stark Industries.”

May and Michelle both sputtered, while Peter just shrugged. “What? She would have found out eventually.”

Monica looked nervously around the room. “Uh… this isn’t exactly the time for jokes, kid.”

Peter sighed, leapt up and touched the ceiling. Of course his palm adhered to it, and he pulled himself up, crawling a few laps around the living room ceiling.

It kind of was too much for poor Monica. She took one look at the boy crawling around  _ on the ceiling _ and fainted straight away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise rapid fire update! Yeah, I'm really into this idea, can you tell? Anyway, like, comment, subscribe, and don't forget to hit that bell to get notifications when.... what? What do you mean kudos and bookmarks? Well, do those anyway if you like it so far. Hell, comment anyway if you don't like it. I wanna improve my writing, and constructive criticism is welcome. Just like, don't be a dick about it, right? Anywho, I'm going to go to sleep now because I've been awake for like, twenty eight hours or something. Yes, like everyone else, a shelter-in-place order has knocked my sleep schedule out of wack. But that doesn't mean you guys shouldn't keep up with social distancing! Stay safe, stay inside if you can, and if you can't, make sure to take every possible precaution. Anyway, see y'all next time, on the next exciting episode of... Dragon Ball Z! Wait, what do you mean this isn't-


	4. Trip To The Doctor's Office

“Okay, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea…” Peter mumbled as he jumped down from the ceiling.

MJ gave her idiotic boyfriend _the_ most whithering glare she could possibly muster, “Gee, you think?”

May sighed, walking over to examine Monica. “Well, I’m no doctor, but I’d say the combination of learning her daughter is pregnant, going out binge drinking, and _then_ learning her daughter’s boyfriend is Spider-man was a bit much for her in twenty four hours…”

The three of them fussed about for around twenty minutes, before Monica’s eyes flickered open. 

“Please tell me I was dreaming…” Monica said as she took the glass of water offered by May.

May shook her head, “Afraid not.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Monica mumbled before turning to address Peter.   
“So… Spider-man, huh?”

Peter nodded, “Yup.”

Monica rubbed her temples. “Okay, like, does the city pay you for your services or something?”

“What? No,” Peter said rubbing the back of his head. “The friendly neighborhood Spider-man looks out for the city for free. Otherwise he wouldn’t really be a friendly neighborhood hero, now would he?”

“Quite…” Monica said, just about at her wits end. Again. “So then how exactly is money not an issue? I remember you said something about SI?”

“Oh, right,” Peter nodded. “Yeah. Mrs. Stark is… well, she looks out for me. Because Tony used to and now he’s…”

MJ hooked her arm around Peter’s waist. “We get it, dork.”

“And yeah, she’s uh… pretty protective of me. I’d think it would be physically impossible for her to not help us out financially.” Peter finished. 

Monica nodded. “Okay. Well, then you seem to have everything except one very important thing figured out.”

Michelle raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, mom?”

Monica looked right into her daughter’s eyes, sighing, “Michelle, I know you and Peter decided to have the baby but… How do you know it’s safe?”

“What do you mean?” MJ said with furrowed eyebrows. “I know I’m a little young, but I should be able to-”

What wasn’t quite clicking for MJ and Peter, but May figured out what Monica was insinuating. “Oh… we don’t know how Peter’s powers will affect the baby…”

Peter ground his teeth. Fuck. Not once did he consider his abilities might make it dangerous for Michelle to carry their kid. “We need to make sure,” Peter said finally. “I’ll call Mrs. Stark.”

* * *

“Hi. Um. I’m Happy.” A heavy set man in a relatively well tailored suit said as he shook Monica’s hand.

“Uh…” Monica wasn’t exactly sure how to respond as she took his hand. “I’m Monica?”

May pinched the bridge of her nose as she leaned up to give Happy a quick kiss, ignoring the muffled gasp coming from Peter’s direction. “Happy is his nickname, Monica.” She swatted his arm, “You really need to get better at introducing yourself.”

Peter grumbled to himself. He had thought May had said they weren’t seriously dating… But maybe she was just telling herself that… 

In any case, he turned to his girlfriend. “Look! Isn’t this cool!” Peter said, gesturing to the private plane on the tarmac.

MJ looked a little green, nodding, “Yeah, yeah, really cool.” She gestured to Happy. “Hey, sweaty guy! That thing have a restroom?”

As soon as Happy nodded, MJ ran up the boarding stairs, practically sprinting down the aisle. She barely made it to the metallic toilet in time. The bowl was so small she almost missed it, but thankfully she managed to angle her projectile puke in such a way as to not make a mess… well, she didn’t make _that_ much of a mess. Nothing that half a roll of toilet paper couldn’t fix, at least.

Peter winced, and ran into the plane to help comfort his morning sickness stricken girlfriend.

“Well,” Happy said after a beat, “I guess now is as good a time as any to board.”

The three adults walked up the boarding stairs at a more normal pace, all collectively wincing at the sound of heavy retching coming from the tail end of the plane.

“Poor kid,” Happy mumbled. “Well, I can’t really take off until she’s… done…”

Monica nodded, “Morning sickness hit her hard. She shouldn’t take too long.”

“She’s been getting enough fluids, right? And daily calories and all that?” Happy asked.

“Awe,” May said, hooking her arm around his. “Look at you being all concerned.”

Monica nodded, “Yeah, she’s been drinking a lot of extra water, eating whatever meals she can, taking all her prenatals, thank you for asking.” 

Eventually MJ hobbled out of the bathroom leaning heavily on Peter. “Uh, Mr. Sweaty Guy-”

“My name is-” Happy tried to interject.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” MJ continued with a dismissive wave. “We cleaned up as best as possible back there, but you might wanna get a professional cleaning crew…”

Happy nodded, “Noted, but there’s no need. The restroom is self cleaning. Anyway, I think it’s time we get this bird in the air.” He said as he made his way to the cockpit. Then he stopped suddenly, as if remembering something. “Hey, Pete? Actually, you mind joining me?”

Peter shrugged, walking up to the cockpit and taking the copilot’s seat. Meanwhile the three women sat together near-ish to the front. 

“Prepare for vertica takeoff,” Happy’s voice came over the intercom. And just like that, the bleeding edge private aircraft was in the air.

“Okay, this is… pretty damned cool,” MJ said as she looked out the window to see they were just… lifting off the ground, the jet’s engines thrust vectoring allowing a smooth and seamless vertical liftoff.

“This is… all still so surreal,” Monica said as she gripped her seat’s armrests.

May nodded, “Yeah, I’ve been involved in this stuff for over a year already and… no, it never really feels normal.”

As the plane transitioned to horizontal flight, MJ leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder, already starting to nod off. She hadn’t really been getting very good sleep, getting up every couple hours to sprint for the toilet, so lately she’d been sleeping whenever she could.

Monica smiled, stroking her daughter's hair. “So… you and Happy, huh?” Monica asked.

May sighed, “Yeah. I’m… still debating whether or not to really get serious with him. Peter likes him, he’s actually really been looking up to him since… Tony passed.”

“But…” Monica said, urging May on.

“But,” May sighed, “I dunno. It’s been almost three years since Ben… But it still feels like a betrayal, you know?”

Monica, in fact, didn’t really know. She hadn’t had a serious relationship since… ever really. After her brief and disastrous relationship with Charles, Monica never was really able to connect with anyone on a romantic level. Not that she didn’t try, of course. She never pursued relationships with men because… she just couldn’t. Not that she wasn’t attracted to them or anything. 

And all of her college girlfriends never really went anywhere. Well, there was one but… Unfortunately she wasn’t ready to get in a serious relationship with someone who already had a kid so.. Yeah… She didn’t really mind though. She had Michelle, and that was always enough. She did want to support her fairly new friend though.

“Well, I never met Ben. But, he seems like the kinda guy who would want you to be happy. You’re happy with Happy, right?”

May narrowed her eyes. “Did you just pun at me?”

“Hey, I’m a mom. I gotta make a few puns a day. It’s like, mom law.”

That got an earnest laugh outta May. “Yeah, I like him. I really do…”

“So… what do you think they're talking about up there?” Monica said, gesturing to the closed off cockpit.

“Oh, Happy’s probably trying to have a dad talk with Peter,” May said. “Hopefully it’s going well.”

“Hopefully,” Monica nodded in agreement.

* * *

As ‘dad talks’ went, the one Peter and Happy were currently engaged in wasn’t so bad, though, it did have a bit of an awkward start.

“So…” Happy began. 

Peter nodded, “So…”

“How’re you holdin’ up, Pete?” Happy asked after an awkwardly long uncomfortable silence.

“Oh, fine… fine…” Peter replied.

Happy shook his head, “That doesn’t sound very certain, Pete.”

Peter sighed, “I dunno… I’m scared, I guess.”

“Of… being a dad?” Happy asked.

“No,” Peter shook his head, “Well, actually, yeah. That’s terrifying, but it’s not so immediate…”

“So what’s gotcha spooked in the here and now?” 

“I… I hope the baby’s okay…” Peter said after a second. 

The way Peter’s voice cracked… It really hit Happy hard. What could he say, he was a softy at heart.

“Oh…” He said after a second. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“Its…” Peter winced, “It’s more than that. Wh-what if they’re like me?”

“What, an extremely brilliant kid with a ton of potential? Doesn’t sound so bad to me,” Happy said with a warm smile.

“Thanks,” Peter said with a light laugh, “But that’s not what I mean. What if they have powers like mine?”

Happy shrugged, “Then they got powers. And sure, you got a little more responsibility with havin’ to teach your kid stuff, but I know you’ll do great, Pete. They’ll probably be web slingin’ before they can even walk.”

“Oh, please don’t say that,” Peter said as he held his head in his hands. “I don’t… I don’t really want them to have the kind of responsibility I have, you know? I just want them to be happy.”

Happy shrugged, “Well, what if takin’ after their dad and beatin’ up bad guys _is_ what makes them happy?”

Peter stared out the window, watching the clouds rush by. “Then… that’s fine I guess…”

And once again, the cockpit became enshrouded by a suffocatingly awkward silence. 

“You know,” Happy said after a while. “W-well, I don’t know how much this is worth really, but for whatever it’s worth… I’m real proud of you kid.”

Peter sighed, “I dunno… I dunno if you should be. Like, isn’t this… isn’t it technically a mistake?”

Happy shrugged, “Maybe. Maybe not. All’s I know is you’re takin’ responsibility, and that’s worth a hell of a lot.”

Peter looked at him with a sidelong glance, “Really? I mean, I think it’s just the bare minimum. Being there for MJ, helping her raise our kid, that’s all… bare minimum, isn’t it?”

Happy nodded, “It should be, and I wish a lot more people had your attitude. Unfortunately for a lot of people, the bare minimum is knocking up a girl, leaving by morning and sending her a check for a hundred grand every month.”

Peter’s eyes narrowed, “That sounds… oddly specific…”

Happy sighed. “Let’s just say Morgan has a couple half siblings. I know of at least three, but there could be more runnin’ around.”

“Wait, what?”

Happy mirthlessly laughed. “What? You think Tony could build that playboy rep of his and not have a few illegitimate kids?”

“D-does Pepper know?” Peter asked in shock.

“Oh, course she does. By the time she and Tony got serious, he had matured enough to tell her the truth. Pepper still writes the monthly checks… but I think she upped them to one fifty grand.”

Peter still looked unsure. 

Happy sighed, “Look kid. I know you really, really looked up to Tony. And I’m not saying you were wrong, I just think ya gotta know… he wasn’t perfect. He was a… complicated guy, that’s all. We all are, I guess. I just…” Happy paused to stroke his beard, “I know you’ve been strugglin’ with the idea of livin’ up to him. I just wanted to make sure you had a realistic idea of what exactly you’re livin’ up to. Trust me, you’re doin’ way, way better than you think you are.”

“Thanks Happy.” Peter said after a moment. “I uh… I really needed to hear that.”

Happy nodded, “No problem, Pete.”

They spent the rest of the hour long flight in silence. A nice, comfortable, pleasant silence.

* * *

“Alright, I just got clearance to land. Everyone get ready, I’m bringing the bird down.” Happy’s voice played through the passenger cabin.

MJ jolted awake as the plane not-so-slowly decelerated. “Oh, wow. We’re here then?”

“Looks like it,” Monica said, glancing out the window.

The jet swooped over the compound, kicking up dust as it looped around to settle down on the landing pad.

Everyone made to leave the aircraft, while MJ went back for the bathroom. An already queasy stomach plus the maneuvers of a vertical landing did not mix. Peter went back to comfort MJ, finding her dry heaving in front of the toilet bowl. She had already thrown up everything, now there was nothing left.

“F-fuck,” she panted, “I am already one hundred and ten percent over morning sickness… _Huurgh_!”

Peter winced, rubbing her back sympathetically she continued to heave. Michelle clutched her stomach, her abdominal muscles so very, very sore from repeatedly trying to throw up. Eventually though, her body realized there was nothing left to puke up, the heaving stopped, and the nausea abated somewhat.

As they left the plane, they already saw Monica, May, Happy and Pepper conversing a little bit down the path. Peter was immediately suspicious. Where in the world was-

“Petey!” Morgan shrieked as she ran out from behind the landing gear to blindside tackle the unsuspecting teenager. Or at least, she tried to. No one could really take Peter by surprise.

He caught her out of mid air, spinning her around as she giggled in elation.

“I missed you Petey!” she squealed as she hugged his neck. 

“Hey Morgie! Oh, I missed you too… so much kiddo.” He held her a little tighter.

MJ prided herself on her stoic reputation, working hard to maintain a neutral expression in public, pretty much no matter what. But, even she couldn’t help but break out into a wide grin at the blatant display of cuteness.

Morgan gave MJ a suspicious side eye when she finally noticed her. “Hello… I’m Morgan.”

Oh, MJ knew right away she’d like this kid. “Yo. I’m Michelle, but you can call me MJ.”

Morgan’s already big expressive eyes widened. “Oh… You’re Petey’s girly friend. Petey, lemme down, I wanna say hi proper.”

Peter let her down, only for Morgan to immediately walk over to MJ with arms raised. She wiggled her fingers expectantly, and MJ quirked an eyebrow as she picked up the small child.

“Ooof,” MJ exhaled as she lifted the actually-not-all-that-small kid. “I dunno how long I’m gonna be able to hold you. You’re such a big kid, and I’m not super-strong like Peter.” She said as they walked over to the small assemblage of adults nearby.

“Here that mama? I’m a big kid. No more bed-time!” Morgan said, sticking out her tongue. 

“Hey, even I have a bed-time kid. Plus, the older you get, the more sleep you want, but the less time you have… Relish bedtime, kid. Relish it while you still can,” MJ said as she passed Morgan to the waiting arms of Pepper Stark.

Morgan looked confused. “Why would I put chopped up pickles on my bed?”

MJ narrowed her eyes. “I know what you did, child. Don’t think you can pun at me and get away with it.”

Morgan wiggled her eyebrows knowingly, and Peter, who was trying so hard not to laugh, finally couldn’t take it anymore and doubled over giggling like an idiot.

“P-please, no more!”

After that impromptu introduction, Pepper began leading the group through the compound. “So the medical facilities are this way. Helen and Bruce are already busy getting some stuff set up, and I took the liberty of contacting other specialists. They’ll be here-”

What MJ could only describe as a literal space ship suddenly decloaked above them, shimmering into existence like a Klingon bird-of-prey.

It landed suddenly and unnervingly quietly, a boarding ramp extending from it’s stern. MJ almost completely lost it as she saw Shuri, Princess of Wakanda descend, flanked by two women she recognized as Dora Milaje.

“Soon…” Pepper finished.

Shuri waved enthusiastically, breaking out into a run. The two Dora glanced at each other in annoyance, their stately gate degrading into a hurried fast-walk as they caught up with their overenthusiastic charge.

“How’s my favorite overexcited puppy poorly disguised as a human being, eh?” Shuri said as she crushed Peter in a hug.

“Hey, Shuri! I’m… I’m doing as well as I can be…” Peter sighed as he halfheartedly returned the hug.

“Oh, right,” Shuri said awkwardly, stepping back.

MJ narrowed her eyes. She tried not to be a jealous girlfriend, but in this case she couldn’t help it. She blamed it on her hormones being out of whack.

Shuri seemed to sense the underlying vague hostility. “You must be Michelle! Well, don’t you worry, I’m not gonna steal your guy. I have a girl at home, you see.” She didn’t really seem to know what else to say, so went for a hug instead.

MJ returned it on instinct, finding that the young princess gave really, really earnest and sweet hugs.

“T-thanks.” It was all MJ seemed to be able to say.

It was at this moment a glowing orange portal sparkled into existence twenty or so feet away from the group. And who would step through it other than Steven Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme himself.

Monica… poor Monica tried her best, but again, it was all way too much way too quickly.

“Whoa there,” Happy said as he noticed Monica starting to sway, deftly catching her as she fainted.

* * *

“Are you sure she’s gonna be okay” Someone asked, as Monica’s eyes flickered open.

She recognized a large green blur rather close to her face, her eyes finally focusing enough for her to realize a huge, hulking green man in a tweed suit was standing over her.

“Bruce, you should probably back up a smidge. She just came to, we don’t want her fainting _again_.” Steven said as he gently pulled the nine foot tall jolly green giant by the robo-arm.

“Oh, yeah. Right. Sorry, ma’am. I’m Bruce. Uh. Please don’t faint again.”

Shuri laughed as she set up a large polyhedral shaped machine. “Somehow I don’t think politely asking her to not faint is going to keep her conscious.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Monica said as she sat up. 

She found herself in a very, very high tech medical facility. Medical equipment of all kinds lined the walls, some she recognized, the vast majority she didn’t. Michelle was laying down on a hospital bed, Peter seated next to her. Pepper sat nearby with Morgan in her lap. A woman she didn’t recognise stood nearby, though Monica could surmise she was the compound’s resident doctor by scrubs and lab coat. Of course, the Hulk… _The Hulk_ stood just beside her bed, with a literal wizard looking at her with vague concern.

The mystery doctor approached, “Normally I would ask if you have any pre-existing conditions that could induce loss of consciousness, somehow I don’t think that’s necessary.” She held out her hand, “I am Helen Cho. I’m the in-house medical professional for this facility.”

Monica nervously shook her hand. “I’m uh… Monica Jones…”

“Keep it together, mom.” Her daughter said from the hospital bed.

“I’m fine, brat.”

“Well,” Dr. Banner nodded. “Looks like we’re ready to get started.” He turned to Peter and MJ. “Oh yeah, if you’re wondering why I’m here, well. I happen to be somewhat of an expert of genetic modification,” he said gesturing to his gargantuan green form.

Dr. Strange rolled his eyes, “And I’m here because I was the premier surgeon of the country. And I also know a variety of medical diagnostic spells.”

Shuri waved, “I’m here because I’m the only one with the technical ability to work this,” she said. She slapped the casing of the polyhedral machine, the edges of its casing glowing a bright purple, “This bad boy can crunch so many fucking numbers.”

Pepper huffed in annoyance, “Language, Shuri.”

Peter made a choking sound, while Michelle rolled her eyes, “Oh no… Memes.”

Helen sighed, “And by that, Princess Shuri means we need a very, very powerful supercomputer to do on-the-fly genetic analysis. Oh, and I’m here because I’m the resident medical professional. And the only licensed OBGYN.”

With introductions out of the way, the gaggle of medical and/or scientific professionals got to work. Helen took DNA samples from both Peter and MJ. Dr. Banner and Shuri worked together on the genetic analysis, while Doctor Strange literally hovered above MJ, slowly chanting.

“Can you lift your shirt just a bit?” Stephen asked.

MJ did as she was asked, marvelling at the myriad of glowing orange symbols as they danced across her exposed belly.

Strange continued to chant, seeing the developing fetus in his mind’s eye. “Well,” he reported, “Everything looks totally normal. When was the conception date, by the way?”

Peter and MJ glanced at each other, “Uh, sometime around the end of June,” MJ said after some hesitation.

“Well, then I’d say you’re right on track for being eight weeks pregnant. Placenta is forming nicely. Blood vessels look very good. Without looking at the genetic level, I’d say everything is normal.” Stephen said, still unnervingly floating above MJ.

“I think that’s the best diagnosis we can do for now,” Helen said, glancing at some charts. “It’s still much too early to do an amniocentesis, so we can’t get a direct genetic sample from the fetus.”

“Speaking of genetics,” Dr. Banner said, looking up from the holographic UI of the Wakandan super-computer, “We just finished sequencing Peter and Michelle’s DNA.”

Shuri fiddled with her kimoyo beads, and a holographic projection of a section of DNA hovered in the center of the room. “So, I think I’ve isolated the genes responsible for Spider-guy’s abilities,” she said gesturing towards the hologram.

A few sections of nucleotides glowed, before the image faded, cycling to another section of DNA, highlighting another section of nucleotides. Again and again, the hologram faded to show different sections of DNA. 

Shuri continued, “There are over thirteen thousand anomalous base pairs, in seven hundred sixty sections of DNA, along all forty six chromosomes ,” She paused for effect. “I know that sounds scary, for context the-”

“The human genome consists of over three billion base pairs, so it’s not all that bad?” MJ finished for her.

“Yeah, basically,” Shuri shrugged. Then the machine emitted a single pleasant sounding ring. “And that monster of a computer just finished sequencing all possible genetic outcomes for your kid.”

“Wait,” Stephen said, finally floating to the ground. “Are you telling me that thing just sequenced-”

“Yes, it just sequenced all sixty four trillion different individual genetically unique possibilities.” Shuri scrolled through the holographic UI projected in front of her arm. “So… One hundred million-ish resulted in combinations that are genetically non-viable,” She noticed Peter and Michelle’s worried expressions. “Oh that’s actually a number well below average. One hundred million sounds scary, but remember, out of sixty four trillion that’s still-”

“One in six hundred forty thousand.” Peter finished.

“Yeah, and that might sound frightening but-” Shuri began again.

“But I think we’re fine considering the odds of getting struck by lighting in my lifetime are roughly one in ten thousand. By comparison, that doesn’t sound so bad.” MJ finished.

Shuri was starting to get just a tad perturbed. God damned genius kids not letting her finish her sentences. Wait, she mentally paused. Oh wow, so this was what her brother felt like all the time. She took a mental note to apologize to her brother for being a smart ass… then erased that mental note later because she couldn’t be bothered.

“Okay, so here’s where the news gets… not bad, but well, we’re gonna talk about the anomalous genes. So in sixty four trillion outcomes, roughly forty trillion had a comparable number of anomalous genes to Peter. So… the odds of the child developing some kind of Peter-like super powers are…”

“Very high,” Peter finished for her.

“Yes, but, and I cannot stress this enough, none of them seem to cause negative outcomes. So we’re good. I think.” Shuri said after a while.

“The only way for us to be sure is to take a genetic sample from the fetus. But it's far, far too early for that right now,” Helen said after a moment. “We can do another appointment in October. By then we could do a normal ultrasound and everything.”

“That would be nice,” MJ said gently caressing her still very flat tummy. All the pregnancy talk really hit it home just how… real this was. Then her body had to ruin the moment, her stomach growling very, very loudly. “Can we do lunch now? I’m _starving_.” 

That was a weird thing about her morning sickness. As far as she understood, normally the idea of food _should_ be repulsive to her. But, oddly enough, despite her inability to keep most meals down, she was _always_ hungry. Or maybe it was because of it, who knows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody! So, it's been a hot minute since I studied basic biology and math and stuff. I tried to research this stuff as best I could, but I'm no biologist, so I apologize in advance if the science I portrayed is in any way inaccurate. Anywho, so MJ and Peter go to the doctors office... in the Avengers compound! Other than that, I know this isn't the most exciting chapter, nor does it have all that much drama. But like, I figured that's kind of a welcome break. So, I think I've rambled on enough. Stay safe, stay sane, try to avoid going outside if you can and like, comment and stuff if you wanna! Ciao!


	5. School Daze

They spent a lovely afternoon at the Avengers compound. Pepper gave them the grand tour, MJ was especially impressed by the expansive library. They also met a few other Avengers currently living on the compound. It was funny, actually. MJ always assumed Peter would know them all really well, considering he was an official Avenger now. 

But the opposite was true, really. He only knew Dr. Strange because he went into space with him. And he knew Shuri fairly well because they were the only teenage Avengers and kinda hung out at the ‘We Saved the World’ party after the Battle of Earth. Other than those two and Pepper, the rest of them might as well be strangers to him.

They had a fairly nice ‘faculty lunch’ where MJ got the unique experience of sitting by Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, and James Rhodes. 

“So… You Pepper tells us you’re the Academic Decathlon team captain for your school?” Sam asked after a long, awkward moment where everyone pretty much did nothing but eat.

MJ nodded, “That is correct, yes.”

She could tell her deadpan was getting to the three older men, and it was _delightful_.

“Okay, so it’s been a long time since I’ve been in high school,” Rhodey said after a second. “What’s Academic Decathlon?”

Peter sputtered, “Okay, I get that it's like, a super nerdy thing, but like. How can you not even know what it is?”

MJ sighed, “Academic Decathlon wasn’t started until 1968. And even then, it didn’t become a national thing until ‘81. I suspect the good Colonel was well out of high school by then.”

Sam struggled to hold back the laughter, while MJ could almost see the vein bulging at Rhodes’ temple.

“I’m not _that_ old. I graduated in ‘86 dammit.” He said with a huff.

Bucky finally spoke up, “Yeah, and I graduated in ‘35. So I _really_ have no idea what Academic Decathlon is.”

“Like it’s name suggests, it’s an academic competition consisting of ten events: art, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, math, music, science, social science, and speech. And the Super Quiz replaces one different event at random each year. There are themes and stuff too.” MJ said between bites of her salad.

“Midtown has won nationals two years in a row! Both because of MJ actually,” Peter said, his voice going annoyingly bubbly with pride and enthusiasm.

“So…” Bucky said after a beat. “You’re basically captain of the dork brigade.”

Peter twitched, physically trying to hold in his laughter by clamping his hands over his mouth. Years of making fun of Ned and Peter for their dorky nerdiness, and it turns out MJ was the biggest dork of them all...

“Not. A. Word.” MJ said, giving Peter a vicious side-eye glare.

“Don’t listen to the fossil, that’s actually something to be really proud of, kid,” Sam said earnestly.

“Thanks…” MJ said after a beat. She didn’t expect Sam to be so nice. That was cool.

Meanwhile, Monica was sitting with May, and Pepper. She already had a pretty good handle on May, they practically talked non-stop over the week, but it was good to get to know Pepper too.

“So, I’m sure Peter’s already told you by now, but they don’t have to worry about anything, financially.” Pepper said between bites of burger.

“I heard,” Monica replied. “But… I know you want to help us but…”

“I know. You don’t want them to rely on me. That’s not my goal. I want them to not have to worry about money, while they get to a place where they can be self-sufficient.” Pepper replied.

May nodded along eagerly, “That’s it exactly.”

Morgan decided this conversation was boring and stepped down from her mother’s lap and walked over to MJ. She raised her hands, wiggling her fingers expectantly.

“Morige, use your words.” Peter said after a second.

Morgan stuck her tongue out at him. “Can I please go up.”

MJ picked up the five year old and set her in her lap. 

“Are you really gonna be a mommy?” Morgan asked, like it was the most normal question in the world.

Bucky, Sam and Rhodey were all well aware of Peter and MJ’s situation, they were just not bringing it up out of respect to the kids. That didn’t stop them from collectively tensing at the question, however.

Peter looked real nervous, while MJ just calmly nodded, “Yup.”

“And Peter’s gonna be a daddy?”

Again, MJ nodded, “Also correct, yes.”

Morgan looked confused. “Where's the baby?”

Oh boy. MJ took a deep breath. “Well, they’re in my tummy.”

The boys at the table were looking real, real nervous by now. Sam was shooting ‘please help us your child is asking _questions_ ’ eyes at Pepper, but she was too engrossed in conversation with Monica and May to notice.

Morgan looked even more confused. “You got a whole baby in there?” Morgan asked, turning to look at MJ’s still flat-as-a-board belly.

“Well, they’re real small now,” MJ said, holding her index and thumb about a space roughly the size of a blueberry. “They’re about this big right now, but they’ll get bigger over the course of,” MJ did some quick math, “thirty two weeks.”

“Oh.” Morgan said then looked _even more_ confused. “How did it get in there? And… how’s it gonna get out?”

Oh boy. “That,” MJ said with finality, “Is a question only your mama can answer, kiddo.”

“Okay,” Morgan said, and of course she hopped down from MJ’s lap and walked back over to her mom.

A second later, MJ was treated to the sight of Pepper Stark spewing milk from her nose as Morgan so casually asked, “How’d MJ get a baby in her tummy? Is she gonna have to-” 

Pepper covered her curious daughter’s mouth just in time, “That’s a question for a little later, okay Morgan?”

After spending the rest of the afternoon at the Compound, Doctor Strange was kind enough to create a portal back to the airport parking lot to spare MJ another flight, in case air travel was aggravating her morning sickness. MJ of course had the wherewithal to ask, “So why didn’t you just portal us to the compound to begin with?”

To which Doctor Strange’s only reply was to sputter. “Er, well. I uh… I didn’t think of it at the time, okay?”

* * *

“So, Ned. Nedward. Nedathy. Nedtonio…” MJ began as she laid on Peter’s bed, reading ‘The Brother’s Karamazov’ while her two nerds were currently sprawled out on the floor building another lego monstrosity.

“Only one of those is my name,” Ned said, finally finding the piece he needed, “But go ahead.”

Peter looked up, wondering where this was going, but kind of having an idea. He agreed they should tell sooner rather than later, but it was still rather nerve racking.

“So,” MJ said after a beat. “Peter and I are having a baby.”

“That’s great,” Ned said. Then five seconds later… “Wait… run that by me again? I could have sworn you said-”

“MJ and I are having a baby.” Peter reiterated.

There was an unnerving silence. Peter couldn’t quite see his best friend’s reaction behind the giant half completed Star Destroyer sitting between them. The silence was just about to really start getting to him, when Peter heard sniffles.

“Are- are you crying, dude?” Peter asked.

All he got in response was unintelligible sniffle-sobbing.

MJ leaned up, “Hey, are you oka-”

She didn’t even finish her inquiry before being engulfed by the arms of an overjoyed young filipino lad.

“ _I’m so happy for you guys! You need absolutely anything at all and I’ll move heaven and earth to-”_

“Uh, thanks Ned… I think? I don’t speak tagalog…” MJ mumbled, her face kinda smooshed against his chest.

“Oh, right,” Ned said after a second. He let her go. “I’m really happy for you guys. If you need anything, just ask and I won’t hesitate to move heaven and earth for you.”

MJ got a little choked up. She was genuinely touched by his sincerity, though if anyone ever asked she’d totally blame it on hormones. “T-thanks, Ned.”

Peter nodded, “Dude… you have no idea what that means to us…” He paused, “Though, we only need your emotional support and stuff. We got money and everything covered.”

Ned nodded, “Right. Mrs. Stark got your back, then?”

“She offered to pay for everything. Literally,” MJ paused, “ _Everything_. Like, up to and including college. I mean, we appreciate it and everything but-”

“We don’t wanna get in the habit of relying too heavily on anyone.” Peter finished for her.

“Yeah,” MJ nodded.

“Hey, it takes a village to raise a child, guys. There’s no shame in asking for and accepting help.” Ned said.

“I get that,” Peter nodded, “But at the same time, we wanna feel like we can actually provide for our own kid.”

“That’s understandable,” Ned said after a second. “So… how far along are you?”

MJ smiled wistfully, “Ten weeks, now.”

“Oh,” Ned said, eyes widening, “Early days still.”

“Yup.” Peter nodded.

“So uh… are you guys gonna go to school?” Ned asked.

“Of course,” MJ said, “I get that people are gonna talk but like, I wanna go back to school.” MJ paused, “Though I’m gonna have to transition to online classes at some point.”

As much as she was determined to stay in school as long as possible, MJ had to admit she was nervous. As always, summer was much too short, worse because they spent half of it worrying about pregnancy stuff. School was starting _next week_ and MJ wasn’t ready. Like, she did all the summer coursework and stuff, but like. She still didn’t quite feel emotionally ready.

“So,” Peter said after an uncomfortable silence, “I heard through the grapevine that you and Betty got back together.”

Ned ‘ahah-ed’ as he found another piece he needed, “Yeah,” he said, clicking it into place, “We decided to try again. The europe thing was like… our trial run, I guess? We’re trying to take it a little more slow and try and make it… more real.”

MJ smiled, “Well, whatever you two love-birds do, use protection, kay?”

Ned laughed, “We’re way ahead of you, MJ.”

“Wait!” MJ suddenly got very interested. “Are you saying you guys banged?”

Ned gave them a knowing look.

Peter made a very, very good impression of a fish out of water. “Wait, since when?”

Ned sighed, “Since the Europe trip, duh.”

“WHAT?!” Peter practically screeched. 

“Yeah,” Ned said. “Didn’t you notice me coming out of her room in the mornings?”

“No,” Peter said, shaking his head, “Too busy dealing with the Mysterio thing, I guess.”

Ned gulped, “Oh, right.”

MJ was still just a little bit shocked. “Oh my god. Betty bangs. I literally cannot believe it.”

“She does have very nice bangs, yes.” Ned said.

“Oh, you did _not_ just pun at me!”

* * *

As principle of a high school, Pat Morita could recall more than a few instances where students came into his office explaining they had a baby on the way but they’d still like to continue their education as far as possible. He always did his very best to accommodate them, and it was something he thought he could take pride in. Students might talk behind their backs, and he’d try his best to put a stop to it. And of course, faculty would always be understanding under his watch.

That being said, he never expected to have that conversation with two of his school’s star students. He was very, very surprised when he got a call from May Parker and Monica Jones explaining the situation. Surprised, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do his best to help the young expectant parents.

“Well, Ms. Jones, Mr. Parker. I’ll alert the staff to allow certain dispensations for you, talking unexpected days off and the like. And if any of the student body give you any trouble whatsoever, please do not hesitate to bring it to my attention.”

MJ nodded, “Thank you for understanding, Principle Morita. I’ll try to miss as few days as possible.”

“And even when she does, I’ll make sure to keep her up to speed on everything she’s missed.” Peter said. 

“Very well, I think we’ve covered everything,” Pat said, getting up to open the door for the young couple. “Good luck, you two,” he said as they left his office.

“Uh. Thank you sir,” Peter said as he followed MJ down the hall.

“That went well,” Peter said after a moment of walking down the hall.

MJ nodded, “Surprisingly, yeah.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” MJ sighed, “I kinda half expected something totally different. This is a very very well regarded private school, you know? I thought they might not like a pair of teen parents walking the halls ‘tarnishing the school’s reputation’, and all that.”

Peter rolled his eyes, “You give our school too little credit.”

“I give the faculty too little credit,” MJ countered. “The student body, however…”

Midtown wasn’t the _worst_ when it came to typical teenage drama. Most of the students worked hard to get in, and genuinely wanted to be there. As a result, a lot of them tended to have a better attitude than the average teenager. Still. That didn’t mean there weren’t going to be people who give them trouble.

“Flash is going to be a nightmare,” Peter whispered.

MJ rolled her eyes, “Eugene won’t say anything, trust me.” At least, she hoped. MJ sighed, “Brad on the other hand…”

Peter made a gagging sound, “Oh, don't tell me he's still into you?”

“Afraid so…” MJ sighed. 

The guy was trying that infuriating ‘waiting in the wings’ bullshit. He messaged her all summer over social media, giving book recommendations and commentary and… the most infuriating thing was, she _liked_ talking to him. He was an intelligent guy, and a lot of their interests aligned. She wanted to stay his friend, but she knew he wasn’t content to be ‘just friends’.

“He’s been nice enough,” MJ continued, “But I got a sinking suspicion he’s just waiting for us to ‘inevitably break up’ so he can swoop in and shoot his shot. When he finds out about…” she vaguely gestured to her lower belly, “He might take it hard.”

“Ugh. He gives you any trouble and-” 

“And what, Peter?” MJ asked, “I can deal with his bullshit, don’t worry.”

“Alright…”

They walked the rest of the way to class in silence. Class itself went fairly well, aside from the part where MJ the nausea coming on and had to sprint to the nearest bathroom without explanation. Thankfully Mr. Harrington didn’t care, and MJ surmised that he already got a certain memo from the principle.

“Hey,” Betty said, lightly taking MJ’s arm as she passed. “You, uh, you okay?”

By the warm look Betty was giving her, MJ assumed Ned must have already told her. “Yeah, yeah. I’m okay.”

“Oh, well uh,” Betty fished around in her backpack, pulling out a pack of altoids. “You might need these.”

MJ winced at the taste of vomit still lingering in the back of her throat, and took the container, “Thanks,” MJ said as she moved to give the tin back.

“Oh, no. Keep ‘em, please.” Betty said, pressing the tin into MJ’s hand. “You need them way more than I do.”

MJ nodded wordlessly, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. God damned hormones, “Thank you, Betty.”

“No problem, MJ. No problem at all.”

* * *

The next couple classes went okay. Peter wasn’t there with her, unfortunately. Fortunately, her morning sickness had seemed to finally confine itself to actual mornings, so she didn’t have to make any impromptu trips to the restroom.

Unfortunately, one of those classes she had with Brad. And for fucks sake, she might be the next Nostradamus, because she fucking called it.

“Hey, MJ,” Brad said as he sat across from her. “So, uh, I was thinking since this is a group project…”

God. Dammit. She’d have to humor him. No one besides her and Brad seemed to actually even wanna _be_ in the class, let alone actually understand the material. It was either risk Brad possibly being creepy, or risk getting a bad grade. Dammit, she chose getting a good grade, because she was an _academic_ dammit, and grades were actually important to her.

“Alright, sure,” she said, against her better judgement.

Brad smiled his stupid ‘trying too hard to be charming’ smile. “Cool!”

He actually got up and sat _entirely_ too close for comfort and instantly MJ was already regretting it.

“Okay,” She sighed, trying to make the best of it. They got to work planning out their project, analyzing passages from the text and whatnot. It… wasn’t so bad, actually. Brad was very intelligent, so the work came easy. He was really funny, interspersing jokes when he could, so the work didn’t even feel like work. 

MJ began to think that maybe she had over-reacted initially… then she felt Brand wrap his arm around her and lay his arm on her hip. Actually, saying he was grabbing her hip was being generous. He was almost cupping her butt. Almost, but not quite. If one squinted really _really_ god damned hard they might just barely be able to mistake it for a platonic gesture. Barely. 

“B-brad,” MJ stuttered awkwardly, “You do know I’m still dating Peter, right?”

That got Brad’s attention, and he removed his hand from her in an instant scooting a bit away. “O-oh… I, uh. I thought he was just a summer fling?”

Fuck. In hindsight, she realized where she might have gone wrong. She wasn’t the kind of person to put her relationship status on social media, and neither was Peter. And now it hit her that their conversations online over the summer could be construed as a little _more_ than light flirting. Though, in MJ’s defense, she wasn’t really good at recognizing that kind of stuff because well, she’d never really been flirted with before. 

“Yeah, um. And we’re pretty serious so…” MJ pinched the bridge of her nose.

Brad nodded, and got back up to sit across from her now. “O-kay so…”

They tried to get back to work as normal, but it was unbearably awkward. It wasn’t fun anymore, and once again the work felt like work. At least they got a semi-decent grade for it… 

She caught up with Peter in the hallways between classes. “So. I was right,” MJ sighed.

“About?” 

“Brad,” MJ said simply. “But don’t worry, he backed off and I think he knows where we stand.”

“Good,” Peter nodded, trying to not let the jealousy well up. 

Of course MJ picked up on it. She didn’t blame him. Not at all. And he seemed to be handling it okay. “Peter, you know I love you, right?”

“Of course! I love you too. I’m sorry I just….”

“It’s okay, tiger. You got nothing to be sorry for,” she whispered as she pressed her lips onto his, “We’re doing just fine.”

She had thought she had dealt with Brad fairly well, she caught him staring at them out of the corner of her eye… Maybe she didn’t deal with him as well as she had thought...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm well aware this chapter is all over the place. This is kinda a collection of a bunch of scenes I couldn't find good places for, so I just mashed them up together into one barely coherent chapter. I hope its kinda okay anyway? So yeah... I brought Brad back because like, his actor might look like he's thirty five, but canonically the character is the same age as Peter and MJ so like, he'd be a senior by now. Which kind of blows my mind. I always assumed the school's class field trip was a mix between all grades, but apparently they were just the junior class. I have no idea what made them so special that they got a trip to Europe, but like, I guess its whatever. Anywho, that's it for me! Stay safe, stay sane, stay inside if at all possible, and like, comment and subscribe! Hit the notification bell for- Did I make this joke already? I feel like I made this joke already.


	6. First Movements

Eight more weeks flew by in an absolute rush for the young couple. School had a tendency to compress time a little bit, with all the homework and tests and whatnot. Luckily for MJ, her morning sickness slowly dropped off, until eventually she was fairly confident she had passed that hurdle at the very least.

School was… okay. People had started to whisper about her, she could tell. At sixteen weeks, she was really starting to show. Her belly obviously stuck out against her slight frame. Well, her frame was getting less slight by the day. She wasn’t putting on a ton of weight, and most people wouldn’t really notice it. She did, though. Because of course she did. In any case, she had taken up wearing loose, untucked shirts, large jackets and oversized hoodies, which wasn’t her normal style, so of course people started to talk.

That wasn’t the only thing that had changed however. It happened one random day after school while she was at home lounging on her couch. Her mom was already starting her night shift at the hospital, and Peter was staying over. He currently busied himself by working on some calculus homework at her coffee table when...

“Woah…” MJ whispered, setting her book aside. There was… some kind fluttering going on in her lower belly, like… butterfly wings flapping or… Or… “Oh my god…” MJ gasped when she realized what it was.

Peter noticed her sudden distress, “What is it, Em?”

Breathlessly, MJ whispered, “I… I think it’s moving…”

Eyes wide, Peter got up. MJ pulled her hoodie up, exposing her pudgy tummy. With a great deal of reverence, Peter laid his hand on her belly and... 

“Oh… Yeah, I can definitely feel it…”

Now that wasn’t one hundred percent normal. By now, MJ would be able to feel the little fluttery movements, but the baby should be too small for anyone to feel it through her belly. Except Peter had super-powers that did give him a higher than average sense of touch. He really had to concentrate to feel the fluttery movement, but he definitely could.

“This is…” He muttered breathlessly, “Unreal…”

“Yeah,” MJ nodded. “I…” Once again, it suddenly became so immediately real what they were embarking on. She leaned over, capturing Peter’s lips in hers. They kissed for a long, long while, just… overcome by the moment.

Peter became aware of the wetness of his cheeks. He wasn’t crying, but MJ was, her tears falling onto his face. He pulled away. “Em, are you okay?”

She smiled, despite the tears, “Yeah… yeah… Better than okay. Way better.” She kissed her lover's forehead. “They’re happy tears, tiger. Don’t worry.”

He ran his fingers through her hair, her already silken locks all the softer from her pregnancy. “So… remember when Doctor Cho said we should do a follow up appointment?”

MJ nodded, “Yeah.”

“I think it’s time we scheduled that…”

* * *

Peter called Dr. Cho and scheduled a meeting that very weekend. Peter was actually rather impressed they were able to get everyone together on such short notice, because like before, Doctor Strange, Dr. Banner and Shuri would all be in attendance.

“One,” Doctor Strange said as he opened the portal to the Avengers Compound, “I got permission to portal people to the compound now, so travel times are a non-issue. And two,” he chuckled lightly, “Well, everyone is looking forward to this, kid.”

“What do you mean?” MJ asked as she and Peter stepped through the portal, Monica and May not too far behind.

“Well, you’re kind of the talk of the town,” Strange said as he led them to the medical facility. 

“Great, more gossip,” MJ sighed.

Stephen winced, “It’s not that. They only say nice things, trust me.”

Banner, Shuri and Cho were already there, setting up various equipment. Cho turned to the incoming group with a smile, “Well, I thought we should start with the ultrasound, considering the amniocentesis might make your stomach a bit sore.”

MJ laid down on the nearby hospital bed. “That would be great, thank you.”

Peter pulled up a chair next to her, while Doctor Cho pulled up her hoodie.

“Oh, well, that’s a good sized belly for sixteen weeks. That’s a good sign,” she said as she squirted some ultrasound jelly onto MJ’s belly. “Sorry, I know that can be a bit cold.” She paused before applying the ultrasound wand, suddenly realizing it was… quite a full room. “Would you like for this to be done in private or…”

MJ and Peter were both about to say the same thing, then they noticed that the assorted Avengers in the room were all waiting on baited breath, silently pleading with their eyes.

MJ sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, “Would you guys like to stay?”

Bruce actually squeaked, despite his gargantuan size, “Yes, please.”

Shuri tried to look nonplussed, but failed miserably as she eagerly nodded.

“Only if you’re comfortable with it,” Stephen said after a moment.

May and Monica need not say anything, but they both nodded eagerly.

Peter sighed, “Then I guess you can all stay.”

“Right,” Dr. Cho said. “Well, before we begin, would you like to know the sex of the baby?”

Peter and MJ glanced at each other. They had already spoken at length about this subject, and both agreed.

“No, thank you,” Peter said.

“We want it to be a surprise,” MJ agreed.

Dr. Cho nodded, “Alright. The reason I ask ahead of time is because this is a very high definition ultrasound machine. Very top of the line. Most laypeople can’t tell the sex of their baby, but this thing is so precise it makes it very obvious. I’ll try my best to get our first view in profile…” She said as she applied the wand to the side of MJ’s belly.

And just like that… there it was. MJ and Peter both collectively gasped as their baby showed up in very, very high detail on the large projected hologram.

“P-peter…” MJ whispered as she grabbed his hand.

He stared at the image of their little one, suspended in their mother’s womb… “Y-yeah…” It wasn’t very eloquent, but it was the only thing he could possibly say.

Dr. Cho couldn’t help but smile. This… this was one of the best parts of her job, in her opinion. But she couldn’t bask in their collected awe, she had a job to do. “Well, there’s their little heart. I mean, I say little, but it’s just the right size.” She hit an audio switch, and suddenly the room was filled with a rhythmic whooshing sound.

MJ was already on the verge of tears, but hearing what Peter had been hearing all these weeks really set her off, “O-oh my god…” 

And Peter was right there with her, tears flowing freely, “I know, it’s… perfect.” He held her hand a little tighter.

Dr. Cho continued her analysis, Doctor Strange piping in every once in a while.

Bruce couldn’t really offer that much input, unfortunately. He wasn’t quite a medical doctor, after all. He just stood in silence, warmly watching the young couple see their child for the first time.

Shuri on the other hand, couldn’t offer anything if she wanted too. She was too busy trying not to ball her eyes out, muttering “ _ Ten years, ten years, ten years, _ ” over and over again to herself in Wakandan Xhosa. Hopefully she could stave off the baby fever that long, because her girlfriend, while supportive, wasn’t  _ quite _ as ready as Shuri was to have a baby.

Monica and May were holding each other, balling their utter eyes out. For Monica, it brought back the very best memories of her own pregnancy with Michelle. And for May, it brought the bittersweet memories of going with Richard and Mary to their own ultrasound appointments.

After a few minutes of observation, Dr. Cho nodded, “Well, everything looks completely normal. You said you’re at your sixteenth week, yes?”

MJ nodded.

“Well,” Dr. Cho shrugged, “Then I’d say you’re right on track.”

Stephen nodded, “I’d have to concur, at least from ultrasound observation. May I do my own diagnostic?”

MJ nodded, and Stephen began making arcane gestures with his hands. Glowing symbology danced over MJ’s belly, as Stephen began to float in place.

He could see the fetus perfectly in his mind’s eye. “Hm… Everything looks completely normal. Placenta is right where it should be, blood volume is looking good. Bones are developing nicely… Everything’s looking right as rain,” he said as he opened his eyes and floated back to the ground.

Doctor Cho nodded. Now the fun part was over, it was time for the uncomfortable stuff. MJ watched with mild horror as Dr. Cho retrieved the largest needle MJ saw in her entire life from her drawer.

“Now, I know this looks bad, but we’re gonna make it as pain free as possible,” She said as she applied a topical anaesthetic to MJ’s belly. “However, that being said, this will pinch just a little bit.”

Peter held MJ’s hand, as Stephen took over the use of the ultrasound wand so Dr. Cho had both hand’s free. Under ultrasound guidance, she gently pushed the needle into MJ’s abdomen.

“Oh, that does… not feel nice,” MJ winced, trying to stay as still as possible. Peter ran his fingers through her hair, kissing her lightly on the forehead.

“You’re doing so well,” he whispered.

Dr. Cho retrieved the barest few drops of liquid before she withdrew the needle. Stephen did MJ the courtesy of muttering a minor healing spell, effectively doing in seconds what MJ’s body would do over the course of two days.

Instantly, MJ felt better, the subtle soreness disappeared, and it felt as if they hadn’t done the procedure in the first place. “T-thanks…”

“No problem kid.” 

Shuri took the needle and injected it’s contents into the genetic sequencer. “This’ll take- oh look, it’s done,” she said almost as soon as she was done withdrew the needle.

“Holy crap, that thing works fast,” Dr. Banner said as he analysed the findings. After a moment, he said, “Well, I can say with certainty the child will have similar abilities to Peter. I can also say they most likely won’t be present at birth. From what I can tell, they’ll probably grow into their abilities around the time they hit puberty.”

“Great, we’ll have to add that to the list of bodily changes we’ll have to talk them through,” MJ said with rolled eyes.

Peter looked really, really nervous, and MJ instantly picked up on it.

“Hey, tiger, you okay?”

Peter knew that was the most likely outcome, but he had hoped against hope that their kid wouldn’t inherit his abilities. With great power comes great responsibility, and… Peter didn’t want that kind of responsibility on his kid’s shoulders. But now wasn’t the time or place to voice his concern, so all he could do was nod and say, “Y-yeah, I’m fine.”

* * *

A little bit later, Pepper and Morgan rushed in, apologizing profusely for being late. Apparently Pepper’s business meeting went on a little longer than expected. MJ insisted that Dr. Cho do a very quick ultrasound just so Morgan could see. For one, MJ wanted to get another quick look and a couple prints… and also because it would be a good educational experience for Morgan.

Peter quickly excused himself, saying he just wanted to go for a real quick walk. No one stopped him because they could tell something was eating at him. He walked around the outskirts of the compound, exploring the forested area for a little bit, before he was drawn to the adjoining lake. He strolled down the jetty, sitting down at a bench at the end of the dock to think. He was so engrossed in said thought that he didn’t notice someone sitting next to him until he heard him speak.

“Ya mind if I sit here sonny? This is my normal fishin’ spot,” an elderly voice came from his left.

Peter perked up, turning to face the voice, “Sure, but… I don’t think this is a public… pier…”

Peter trailed off as he realized exactly who it was sitting down next to him. To this day, it still blew his mind that time travel was totally a thing, and that Steve Rogers lived an entire lifetime in an alternate universe. 

Steve set up his fishing rod, and cast his line perfectly, the weighted and baited hook splashing a good fifty feet away from the end of the dock.

“So,” Steve began, “I heard some wall crawlin’ hooligan from Queens is gonna be a dad?”

Peter smiled, trying to keep the expression honest, but even so it felt rather fake. “Yup. We’re very excited,”

“I could tell,” Steve replied. “Your lady is showin’ off ultrasound prints to pretty much everyone. She’s doin’ this funny thing where she’s trying to not be extremely enthusiastic and failin’ spectacularly. It’s cute.”

“That sounds like MJ,” Peter nodded.

Steve shook his head, “I’m not good at dancin’ around the point kid, so I’m just gonna ask, what’s eatin’ ya?”

“Nothing, Mr. Rogers. I just wanted to get some air,” Peter insisted.

Steve laughed, “Oh, please don’t call me Mr. Rogers. I am  _ not _ your neighbor.” It took him almost thirty years, but he finally got the reference.

“Secondly,” Steve continued, “In my experience the only reason a youngin’ like you goes off for a constitutional is because they got somethin’ to think about.”

Peter wondered exactly what a ‘constitutional’ was, but now was not the time. “I… I’m worried, yeah.”

“That’s a little vague kid. Care to elaborate?”

“I… I’m worried about my kid, and the fact that every test points to the fact that they’ll have powers like mine,” Peter sighed.

Steve laughed, “Is that it? Peter, if your kid has superpowers, then they have superpowers. There isn’t anything you can do about it, all you can do is teach your kid how to use their powers responsibly when the time comes.”

Peter shook his head. “It’s not that easy. They’ll have so much responsibility on their shoulders…”

Steve looked at him quizzically, “Oh, I don’t think so. They could choose to use their powers like we do, or they could  _ not _ and live their own life. It should always be their choice.”

“But… I always thought…” Peter sighed, “If you have powers, and you don’t use them… and then something bad happens… then isn’t on you?”

Steve shook his head, “Look kid, that’s… a lot to unpack.” He sighed, shifting in his fold out chair. “You’re right, to an extent. If you  _ chose _ to be endowed with those powers, and you  _ chose _ not to use them and something bad happens, then yeah, it is kinda on you.”

Steve lightly bobbed the fishing rod, “But you didn’t have a choice, kid. You got your powers through a random accident. You have the right to choose not to use them, if you want. Same thing for your kid.”

Peter took a deep breath, feeling a little better about himself. “I… I never thought of it like that…” 

“Yeah,” Steve laughed, “Us selfless do-gooder types rarely do. Now get back in there and help MJ show off your kid.”

* * *

MJ took a deep breath. She could do this. She was awesome. All she was doing was officially announcing her pregnancy to the Decathlon team. No biggie. 

“It’ll be fine, MJ.” Peter said as he took her hand.

“Yeah,” MJ nodded, “Of course it will.” She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt, as she pushed the doors to the library open. 

Her team was already sat at the table in the back corner, the one reserved for their team. Mr. Harrington had already started them on the group study exercises, but had them stop when MJ and Peter approached.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s take a break. I think our team captain has something to announce.”

And just like that, everyone was staring at her. She froze up for a second, until Peter gave her hand another supportive squeeze. She took a deep breath. “So… I think it’s all fair to update you all on a… significant life event, considering it’ll most definitely start impacting my performance as your captain…”

She paused for effect, before deciding to just come out and say it. “I’m uh… I’m pregnant.”

To her team’s credit, their only major reaction was a series of surprised flinches… and for Matthew to begrudgingly pass Zoha a twenty dollar bill. She filed that one away for later. But other than that, there weren’t any outraged gasps or anything. So far, so good.

“As you can surmise, this will have a… deleterious effect on my abilities as your captain. I’m probably going to miss a few days. I might even miss important meets. That is why I’ve also decided to announce that effective immediately-”

“You aren’t resigning are you?” Zoha asked in a mild panic. 

“That was just our dumb bet, we didn’t mean anything by it! We still think you’re gonna be a great-” Matthew cut in.

“No,” MJ sighed, “I’m not resigning. If you’d please let me finish. Effective immediately we’ll have a co-captain. Someone to take up my responsibilities while I’m gone, and just help me out with the team in general. And that co-captain is…”

She paused again for effect, enjoying how everyone subconsciously leaned forward. She let the suspense build a little bit more, before smiling.

“Ned Leeds.”

And as to be expected, the whole team went wild. Or at the very least, as wild as they could get while in the library. MJ kinda felt like nothing productive was going to be done with two bombshells dropped on her team, so instead of a hardcore study session, she made it a chill ‘hang out’ meeting instead. 

They moved the meeting from the library to the small auditorium nearby so they could talk freely. Betty and Zoha pretty much immediately started asking questions, while Peter and Ned hung out nearby, no doubt talking about something horrifically nerdy. 

“So,” Zoha began, “Um… if you don’t mind me asking… what’s it like?”

“What, being knocked up?” Of course MJ had to be as blunt as possible. Because like, how could she not?

“I mean, I wouldn’t put in such terms,” Zoha said after a second, “But yes.”

MJ sighed, “Up until like, two weeks ago it was really, really annoying. You remember when I’d make impromptu bathroom runs?”

The girls nodded, of course Betty already knew what she was gonna say.

“I remember when my mom had my little brother. Morning sickness sucks.” Betty nodded.

“Oh, yeah, throwing up all the time had to be…” Zoha sighed, “You’re okay, MJ?”

MJ nodded, “Of course. I drank plenty of water, got as many calories as I could, took all my prenatals. I’m fine. Just did my first ultrasound. Actually, hold on a sec.”

She pulled a folder out of her backpack, opening it up to reveal her ultrasound printouts.

“W-wow…” Betty said as she stared at the crystal clear image of the baby in profile. “Holy crap, where’d you get this done? I’ve seen a few ultrasound prints, and these are by far the clearest I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah,” Zoha agreed, looking over Betty’s shoulder. “Gosh, I can count the fingers even.”

MJ internally panicked, cuz like. What was she supposed to say? She went to a state of the art medical facility in the Avengers Compound? “Uh, they’ve made a lot of progress in ultrasound imaging, I guess.” MJ said, hoping they’d buy it.

“A whole lot of progress, I guess.” Becky replied. Thankfully no one questioned it further.

“So, how far along are you?” Zoha asked.

MJ shrugged, “Uh sixteen-ish weeks now.”

“Four?” Betty said incredulously. “Wow, you’re almost halfway there.”

Zoha looked just as surprised, “Really? You don’t show it…”

“Oh, I do. I just wear a lot of baggy shirts and stuff.” MJ sheepishly pulled her oversized shirt up, revealing her relatively pudgy belly.

“Ah, yup,” Zoha said after a second. “Okay, yeah… that’s a baby bump all right.”

MJ giggled, “Oh. Hello honey,” she said in an uncharacteristically cutesy voice as she felt the fluttering feeling in her belly. “You don’t like the spotlight, do you? Okay, no more,” MJ said as she covered up her belly again.

Zoha and Betty looked at her like she suddenly grew two heads.

“What?”

“N-nothing,” Betty stammered.

Zoha shrugged nervously, “Well, its just uh. We never took you to be the maternal type… Until just then.”

“What? Just because I’m a grouch to everyone else around me doesn’t mean I can’t be motherly to my own kid, you know.” MJ said with narrowed eyes. She let them stew in uncomfortable silence for just a little while longer. “I’m joking. I know, sometimes I surprise myself. I uh, until this happened,” She said gesturing to her belly, “I never expected myself to be all motherly either.”

Discomfort dispelled, Betty just had to ask, “So… They’re moving now?”

MJ nodded, “Yeah. When it first started like two weeks ago I really had to concentrate to feel it, but now it’s super obvious. At least to me. Other people can’t feel it through my belly yet.”

They talked a little while more. Meanwhile, Peter was having a similar talk with Ned, Flash and Matthew.

“So like,” Matthew began, “Are you guys like, living together?”

Peter shrugged, “Kinda sorta. We spent nights at each other’s apartments.”

“So, how’ve you been, buddy? Haven’t hung out with you guys outside of school in a while.” Ned said.

Peter nervously laughed, “Yeah, sorry about that, things have been busy. We just had our first ultrasound appointment last week…” Peter said as he too dug through his backpack. Of course Dr. Cho was kind enough to print out two sets for them.

“Holy fu- I mean, cow…” Flash said as Mr. Harrington gave him a look. “Those are… ridiculously clear.”

“Oh yeah,” Peter stammered, “W-we uh, went to a specialist.”

“How’d you afford this?” Flash asked, “T-that’s not, sorry. That’s not a financial dig, I swear. Seriously, these are just really good prints…”

“Oh, it’s fine. MJ’s mom knows someone,” He said, thinking quickly. Luckily no one picked up on it.

“So, I assume you’ve known for a while, Ned?” Matthew said as he returned the print after giving it a long look.

“Of course Pen- uh, Peter would have told his best friend first.” Flash said, catching himself. 

Ned nodded, “Yeah, I got the advanced notice. Because I’m awesome. Speaking of advanced notice, you guys know the sex yet?” 

Peter shook his head. “No, we wanna keep it a surprise.”

“Bold of you,” Matthew replied. “So I guess it’s a bunch of gender neutral newborns stuff then?”

Peter shrugged, “Doesn’t have to be. Fuck gender norms.”

Mr. Harrington looked up. “You know what? I’ll allow it.”

* * *

“Jeez, is it warm in here?” MJ asked as she stripped off her t-shirt and pajama pants, going all the way down to her panties. She stopped wearing bras since she outgrew her largest pair. Peter was nonplussed, by now the sight of her naked body didn’t freak him out like it used to.

Like, Peter was still attracted to her of course. But now he’d only get  _ excited _ when she did, and he knew by the sight of her perspiring body that now was certainly not the time.

“No,” He replied. “If anything it’s a little cold in here…”

MJ liked to keep her room just a tad bit cooler than what Peter found comfortable, considering he could only kind of thermo-regulate.

It was only seven o’clock, but even still, MJ was exhausted. And it wasn’t because of hormones or anything. She was still more fatigued than normal, but it never got this bad…

“I’m uh… I’m gonna go to bed, tiger,” MJ said as she laid on top of her bedding, not even bothering to cover herself with a sheet.

“Okay…” Peter said, looking at her with obvious concern. “Are you okay, Em?”

“Y...yeah… I’m just,” She yawned, “Really tired and hot for some reason. It’s gotta be a pregnancy thing.”

“Okay…” Peter replied with a wavering voice. He stayed up just a little longer to finish his homework, and climbed into bed with her.

She was warm… really, really warm. He could feel it through the bedding, even. “Hey, Em?” No answer. “MJ?” He asked a little more panicked. “MJ! Michelle!” He practically cried as he tried to shake her awake, to no avail.

It was only then he noticed her eyelids fluttering, her body trembling despite her obvious fever. And most terrifyingly, he couldn’t get her to wake up at all...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooh! Cliffhanger! Well, don't worry. I plan to update rather soonish. And hey look! Surprise Mr. Rogers cameo! That was pretty fun to write. And like, yeah, I skipped two months of time because like... I can. There will probably be fairly large time jumps in this because... I just don't wanna catalog literally every week up until the baby is born. That sounds not fun, so I'm not gonna do it. Oh, also, get ready for another steamy chapter. I'm gonna post it as a side-fic to this one in the same series, so look forward to that! Anywho, I'll see you guys next chapter! Stay safe, stay sane, stay inside if at all possible and comment and stuff. I need validation. Just kidding. But seriously, comments motivate me to write faster, just sayin'. Okay bye-bye for real!


	7. Super Trials

“Come on, baby… Come on, wake up…” Peter kept trying to shake her awake, and the best he got out of her was a few mumbles and fluttering eyelids. Her heartbeat was normal-ish… the baby’s heartbeat was normal-ish… But she was burning up, sweat pouring down her body. MJ was breathing, thankfully, but her breaths were shallow and irregular.

Not knowing what else he could do, Peter called Doctor Strange. And less than five minutes later, Peter was carrying his trembling girlfriend bridal style through a portal and directly into the Avenger’s medical facility. 

Dr. Cho helped him lay MJ down on a medical bed and hooked her into all kinds of diagnostic equipment. “How long has she been like this?” 

Peter shook his head, trying to keep calm. “U-uh… I dunno, less than an hour? She complained that it was really warm and went to sleep pretty early. And when I got in bed she was already like this…”

Dr. Cho looked over various medical readings, whilst Stephen performed diagnostic spells.

“Her vitals are all normal, except for her brain waves and temperature. She’s pulling a one hundred and six degree fever, and her brain waves are… I don’t even know what’s going on…” Dr. Cho said, worry etched on her face.

“Good news is… Whatever this is doesn’t seem to be affecting the fetus much, if at all. Despite MJ’s temperature, it seems to be doing completely normally.” Stephen replied, his eyes still closed in pseudo-meditation. “Wait,” he amended, “There is something strange. The placenta… It seems to be allowing more cellular transfer than normal…”

The placenta’s function was normally to transfer nutrients, oxygen, and waste without the blood supplies from the mother and fetus coming in direct contact. But for some reason, their placenta formed in such a way that allowed for a degree of direct blood sharing. Since it didn’t cause a problem until now, he never considered checking for this kind of abnormality…

Stephen’s eyes shot open. “I think I know what’s going on. She’s stable, correct?”

Dr. Cho nodded, “Yes, for now… why?”

“Because I’m going on a quick jaunt to Wakanda…” And with that, Stephen opened up a portal and all too calmly walked through.

Peter collapsed into a nearby chair, trying to stave off a panic attack. Dr. Cho immediately noticed his state.

“Hey, Peter,” She soothed. “I don’t know what’s wrong with Michelle, but she isn’t deteriorating or anything. Try to stay calm…”

Peter nodded, taking MJ’s hand. It was entirely too warm and clammy… but he could feel her steady pulse, and hear her normal-ish breaths. Slowly, he started to calm down. “R-right…” he nodded.

Stephen returned in record time, bringing along a concerned Wakandan princess, an _extremely_ distraught mother, and an equally distraught aunt. 

Shuri wasted no time. She collected a quick blood sample from MJ and got the genetic compiler running. 

May immediately wrapped Peter up in a hug, while Monica clutched MJ’s free hand and tried very hard not to completely break down.

The DNA compiler returned with a result unnervingly fast, as usual. 

“Well,” Shuri began, “With just a cursory glance I think I know what’s going on…” She projected a hologram of presumably MJ’s DNA into the center of the room. “MJ exhibits similar genetic markers to both Peter and her child. From this I can surmise that-”

“She’s gonna be like me, isn’t she?” Peter asked, as he began to hyperventilate.

Shuri nodded sympathetically. “I believe so, yes. The genetic markers aren’t a one hundred percent match to yours, Peter, so there might be some differences. But I believe she will develop abilities similar to yours.”

“H-how did this happen?” Monica asked through her barely restrained sobs.

Stephen sighed, “I think I have a presumptive answer to that. I noticed the placenta allowing for more maternal-fetal blood transfer than usual. I believe eventually they shared enough blood that-”

“It triggered a mutagenic response…” Dr. Cho finished for him. She turned to Peter. “What happened to you directly after you got bit by that spider, Peter?”

Peter gulped. “Well, uh… I got really tired. I slept for like, three days straight, and I might have had a fever throughout most of it…”

“But otherwise there weren't any other negative symptoms?” Dr. Cho asked.

Peter nodded.

“Then I think the only thing we can do for now is monitor her condition and wait this thing out…”Dr. Cho continued.

“Wait,” Peter gasped. “Are you saying my- our blood is mutagenic?”

Dr. Cho shook her head, “No I don’t think so. Though I wouldn’t recommend donating blood or anything. From what I can tell your platelets work slightly differently. Your blood might not work in a way a normal human body would expect and it would probably be less effective. Or cause allergic reactions.”

She consulted a few more charts, “No, what I think happened is that-” And Dr. Cho proceeded to explain biological concepts that were way, way out of Peter’s depth. From what he gathered, it was like their baby’s blood was fully compatible with MJ’s body, and over time the cellular interaction caused minute changes to MJ’s DNA, until it hit a tipping point and caused a reaction similar to when he was bitten by that damned spider. Or something.

“So… what do we do?” Monica asked, still fighting off the panic.

Dr. Cho sighed, “The only thing we can do. Wait it out and monitor Michelle’s condition.”

* * *

And wait it out they did. Monica and May called Midtown and explained that because of medical reasons, Peter and MJ wouldn’t be returning for the foreseeable future. The school agreed, setting up a system where their classes and homework could be done remotely, that way they wouldn’t be too far behind when they were finally able to return to school.

It took four days of anxiously waiting by MJ’s bedside, but eventually she woke up... 

MJ’s eyes fluttered open… and everything was different. She recognized this room, it was the Avenger’s medical facility… but it wasn’t. All the colors were wrong… Wait… no… that wasn’t quite it. It was more like… everything had a filter over it, like she recognized the ‘normal’ colors, but some things just looked… weird.

She stared at the flowers in particular. They… she didn’t know what they were. They were shaped like normal earth flowers but they had these stripes and patterns she never saw before, almost like they were bioluminescent. But even that wasn’t quite correct, because they didn’t really seem to glow either.

MJ became aware of a weight on her chest, and she looked down to see Peter resting his head in the cleavage of her breasts. Except… it wasn’t Peter. Or was it? It looked like him. His facial features were right, but the patterns on his skin were… His face looked dotted with freckles, but a bit darker. And they flowed along his cheekbones and around his eyes in patterns she never saw before in freckles. 

That wasn’t the weirdest thing either. His cheeks… They glowed, along with the tips of his ears. And then it suddenly became all too much for her. A massive migraine formed right behind her eyes. MJ groaned, screwing her eyes shut to keep out the riotous mass of colors and shades her brain wasn’t quite ready to perceive yet.

She shifted in the bed, arching her back and kicking her legs out in a vain attempt to somehow alleviate the pain. That was when Peter woke up.

“Em? Em! Hey, hey, what’s wrong baby?” He asked, trying to keep her calm.

“I don’t know! Everything looks weird and-” She let out a strangled cry as she realized her blankets and bedding were _sticking_ to her. MJ thrashed around harder, trying to free herself from her cloth prison, but that only served to entangle her tighter.

Peter recognized this… it happened to him too when he first woke up with his new abilities.

“Hey, hey…” He tried to sooth her, “Just breathe, slow, deep breaths. Don’t move for a little bit, okay?”

MJ kept her eyes closed, her brain still adjusting to the influx of new visual information. She tried to do as Peter said, tried to keep calm and take deep breaths but… “W-why is everything so loud?” 

She could hear _everything_. From the heartbeats of everyone in the room, to the staff walking and talking down the halls. Even the birds chirping in a tree a thousand feet away from the window sounded like they were right there with her in the room.

Peter gingerly cupped her cheek, wincing when he realized she was sticking to his hand too, but he tried to let that not phase him. “Just… listen to me…” 

He pressed her ear against his chest, and the comforting sound of Peter’s heartbeat and breath drowned everything else out. It allowed her to focus her hearing on herself… and she realized she could very clearly hear her own heartbeat. And not just that but…

“Oh…” She gasped, tearing up as she realized what the light _tump-tump_ from her belly was. Peter’s heartbeat and breath drowned out everything else, allowing her to focus on that fast little rhythm. She let the heartbeat of her baby become her center, the only thing that mattered in the world right now. 

And slowly, ever so slowly she let the other things in, moving her focus from one sound source to another. The panicked rhythm of her mother’s pulse, then May’s only slightly calmer one. Dr. Cho’s measured and precise pulse. Then back to Peter’s, and her’s, and her baby’s… 

Eventually she allowed sounds from farther afield in. The exhausted chatter of the various employees in the lounge… The squirrels chittering in the trees… The waves gently lapping at the nearby lake.

“I-is this what you hear all the time?” MJ asked, her face still buried in Peter’s chest.

“I dunno, what’s the farthest thing you can hear?”

MJ focused again, “I… I think there’s someone fishing at the end of the dock?”

Peter nodded in reply, “Yeah, I think Captain Rogers is out fishing this morning.”

“How do you live like this?” MJ asked, still reeling a little bit from the sensory overload.

Her boyfriend shrugged, “Well, I started by focusing on a few things at a time. Eventually I learned to shut the vast majority of it out.” Sometimes he thought he did it too well. There were occasions when he realized he accidentally _chose_ not to hear things that were actually important.

“What about the colors?” MJ asked, still too afraid to open her eyes.

Peter frowned, “What do you mean?”

“When I first opened my eyes I noticed everything looked different…”

Dr. Cho chose that moment to step in. “I think we need to run some tests…”

It took a little bit of work, but eventually MJ calmed down enough to not instinctively stick to literally every surface she touched. She only stuck to _most_ things now, but it was only kind of totally inconvenient in every way possible. In any case she had enough basic control of her stickiness that Dr. Cho could run some tests.

Just a cursory eye exam took way longer than it normally should have, because MJ simply couldn’t keep her eyes open longer for more than a few minutes without suffering a massive migraine. Though, a cursory test was all it took.

“I think I know what’s causing your visual discomfort,” Dr. Cho said, as she pulled the ophthalmoscope and retinal cameras away from MJ’s face. “It looks like you now have the ability to see slightly into both the UV and infrared spectrum. To determine just how far will require extra tests. But I think your brain is still trying to figure out how to process all this extra visual information. Along with the additional auditory input, it’s bound to be very overwhelmed.”

It took SI engineers half an hour flat to create and fit a pair of goggles with special lenses that filtered all but the visual spectrum out. 

“Wear these for now. But I suggest trying to go without them for as long as possible in order for your occipital lobe to get used to handling processing the extra information. Otherwise you won’t be able to function without glasses or contact lenses.” Dr. Cho said as she finalized the fit for the goggles.

“That’s so weird,” Peter said. “I didn’t develop augmented eyesight.”

Dr. Cho shrugged, “Well, there are subtle genetic differences in your augmentations. It stands to reason you’d have slightly different abilities."

MJ sighed in relief when she put the goggles on. The world finally looked _normal_. “Okay… what’s next?”

* * *

The very next thing was getting dressed. Which revealed something else surprising. MJ stood totally naked in front of a full body mirror, just… admiring the changes. She still had the little bit of the pudge she put on from her pregnancy, but underneath that was definitely more muscle. It wasn’t as drastic as Peter’s transformation. He went from a tiny twig of a boy to a full athletic figure in literally a week. 

Her’s was more subtle. In fact, most people wouldn’t notice considering her wardrobe didn’t really call attention to her very subtle curves. Formally very subtle, she should say. Now she actually had them, not that it mattered. Though, she couldn’t help but think Peter would definitely notice as she turned around to get a full view of her body. Her butt was definitely… fuller. And she could boast the fact that she actually had thighs now. Not that she cared about that kind of stuff. Her body changed, certainly. It was different, not inherently better.

After she spent a full half hour in the bathroom inspecting the changes and getting dressed for the day, it was time for strength, balance and endurance tests.

“Wow. This is kinda amazing,” MJ said as she effortlessly performed an unsupported handstand, going so far as to only use one hand. It actually almost took her breath away just how easy it was, even with her pregnant belly throwing off her center of gravity slightly.

Peter, not wanting to be left out, did a one-handed handstand too. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool isn’t it?”

Next was a run, which was supposed to be a single lap around the lake. The lake with a five mile shoreline... Even though they were told to go easy, it quickly turned into a race between the young couple, of both speed and endurance. One lap became two, then three, then four, until finally MJ had to call it quits.

“Okay, tiger… You… win…” She panted to catch her breath as she leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees.

Peter gasped, “Oh thank god- I mean. Cool… Yeah… good… run…” MJ gave him one hell of a literal run for his money. And she was pregnant! He shuddered to think of what her endurance would be like after she had the baby…

Dr. Cho shook her head as she took notes. “This was supposed to be light exercise!” She chided. Though, she supposed, with their augmented speed and endurance, a twenty mile run in two and a half hours might as well be a light workout.

After a half hour break, they proceeded to strength tests. 

“So uh… this is something I never tested for myself, even…” Peter admitted as he got into position in the hydraulic powered squat bar.

“Well, it’s a good thing we’re getting to this now, then.” Dr. Cho said as she started the press. Considering the extreme forces the machine could produce, it was designed to stop the instant the squat bar lowered even the barest millimeter. 

When Dr. Cho saw the pounds of force go into the quadruple digits, she became very, very thankful for that safety feature. Turns out, Peter could resist nearly ten tons of force before even _beginning_ to buckle. She quietly neglected to mention the best Bucky was able to do was five tons. On a good day. After a lot of stretching and warm up.

As careful as they were with Peter, they had to be _exceedingly_ careful with MJ’s test. Strictly speaking, pregnant women weren’t supposed to do super heavy lifting, but this was for science. Just to be sure, Cho called the test at three tons, even though MJ claimed she could go heavier.

“You probably could, but we don’t know if it’s safe. So we’re calling it a day at three tons,” Dr. Cho said, recording the results.

“That’s still three tons, Em. Six thousand pounds. The weight of a heavy duty pickup truck,” Peter said, patting her shoulder. 

“Yeah, I guess I’m pretty great,” MJ said as she picked up their water bottle… and accidentally crushed the aluminum canteen in her hand. 

Peter winced, “Okay, that’s something else we need to work on. I find that after I really, _really_ start using my super strength, I have to consciously remind myself to... 'go easy' on the world around me.”

MJ arched an eyebrow, “Wait, question. So how come you didn’t reduce my pelvis to dust the first time we had sex?”

Peter blushed, very consciously aware of the fact that Dr. Cho was within earshot.

“Well,” Peter said much more quietly. “Basically, I operate with normal human strength most of the time. I either consciously have to ‘activate’ it like we just did with the test, or it just happens whenever I get an adrenaline rush. Which is while I still have to be careful when we're intimate, I won't accidentally obliterate you or anything." He hoped, at least. The incident with he bruised hip made him question that assertion.

He paused, gesturing to the semi-crushed canteen. “Most of the time the super strength ‘deactivates’ immediately after I’ve stopped using it. Though, the more strength I use all at once, or the longer I use it, the more I have to consciously be aware of not breaking stuff afterwards, and the longer it takes for the super strength to subconsciously ‘deactivate’, If that makes sense.”

“No, that makes perfect sense.” MJ gingerly picked up a nearby weight, and noticed how scarily easy it was for her fingers to leave dents in the solid steel weight. “Okay, just gotta be real… careful…”

It took her hours of practice to be able to go from being able to crush solid granite rocks with her bare hands to handling porcelain dishes and stuff, but eventually it got to the point where she was confident she could hug her mother without accidentally crushing her. It wasn’t so much that MJ ‘lived in a world of tissue paper’ so much as that she had to learn how to subconsciously stop using her super strength when the situation no longer called for it. She was still a little nervous around fragile, squishy humans, but she hadn't seriously hurt anyone... yet.

* * *

“Ow… ow… _Ow_ …” MJ muttered to herself as she laid in the bed of her and Peter’s shared room at the Avengers Compound. She was currently trying to see how long she could go without the UV/Infrared blocking goggles. It was much easier considering it was night time and the room was lit with LED lights. Since LEDs produced miniscule amounts of UV light, it was much easier for her practice getting used to her visual augmentations.

“You doin’ okay, Em?” Peter asked as he took a break from homework for now.

“Yeah, it’s not so bad. The color vomit I’m constantly subjected to isn’t so bad at night. The only thing I have to get used to now is the fact that your face glows.”

Peter looked confused, “Wait, what do you mean?”

MJ shrugged, “I think I can only see very slightly into the infrared spectrum. Like, your chest glows a little bit. And your...” she gestured to his crotch, "But only when you're really 'excited'. Mostly it's just your face and ears. They glow brighter when you're embarrassed. Or lying."

Peter’s eyes widened, “Wait, you can tell when I’m lying!” 

MJ smirked, “Maybe I can. Maybe _I’m_ lying. You’ll never know...”

“Em, seriously, I don’t wanna be paranoid around you.” Peter said earnestly.

Oh. Now that she thought about it, the ability to tell whenever Peter was lying _could_ put a strain on their relationship.

“I can only sorta guess when you’re vaguely nervous. I can't tell exactly whenever your lying.” _Yet_ , MJ mentally added. She sighed, “And… I promise, Peter. If I do get good at being a human lie detector, I’ll try my very best to not use it against you. Though that being said, I can definitely tell when you’re embarrassed, with or without infrared vision.”

“That,” Peter said as he got in bed with her, “I can accept.”

MJ turned on her side so Peter could spoon her. Normally she preferred being the big spoon, but her burgeoning belly made that a little difficult now. She sighed in contentment when Peter began stroking her rounded middle. It was funny, now that she could hear their baby’s heartbeat, she could also tell that they always calmed down a little bit at Peter’s touch.

“Hey, tiger?” She asked looking over her shoulder. “Um… So when the baby is born… I was thinking… Maybe I can like, join you? I mean, join you as a friendly neighborhood spider-themed superhero?”

Peter stiffened. Oh boy. That was a loaded question. “I… I think we need to really consider what that means for both of us,” He said as he kissed her neck. “And I think that’s a conversation for when we aren’t about to go to sleep.”

MJ nodded. She was already starting to nod off after all. But still, it was something for them to think about a little later on...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! MJ gets super powers too! I hope this isn't too out of left field. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is kinda an original idea? Getting spider-powers from being pregnant with Peter's kid? Like maybe not in the fanfic sphere, but I don't think this was ever done in the comics, right? Also, I know my medical explanations don't make sense. Nothing about comic books actually make logical scientific sense, so I think I'm in the clear with that one. Also, I figured I should give MJ some unique powers, and I read that spiders can kinda sorta see in the UV spectrum. I just included the infrared vision because that seemed cool. And I could introduce the concept of MJ being able to read people's moods through their facial heat. That seems useful for a super hero, right? And it's not too over powered, right?
> 
> Anyway, I think I'm done with this author's note. Stay safe, stay sane, stay inside if at all possible, and comment if you guys are so inclined! See you all next time!


	8. Arachnophobia

Peter and MJ spent a full week at the compound working on MJ’s control over her new abilities. They focused especially on MJ’s control over her enhanced strength. Peter was right, MJ kinda felt like she had normal control over her body, until she got stressed out. Which because of her condition, happened a lot. It took a lot of dedicated practice to keep her outbursts of strength to a minimum.

MJ was reminded of that week or so after Peter got his powers when it just seemed like he was the clumsiest person on planet earth. At the time she thought he was just… hilariously incompetent. But that was because she didn’t know that his body had been irrevocably and drastically changed over a very short period of time. And now that she did, that entire week of comedy of errors now made perfect sense.

As she gained control over her strength, MJ also got used to her new visual prowess. It wasn’t just that her perceptions of colors were wildly different now. It was also that everything was so crystal clear. But eventually her brain learned to process the riotous mass of new colors and extremely sharp images, allowing her to go outside and relearn what everything looked like.

“Peter. Peter look at this,” MJ said holding up a fallen leaf. It was late October now, and the leaves were starting to go auburn and drop. It was really pretty, the forest in fall. But to MJ it was-

“Look. At. It.” MJ continued, aggressively shaking the leaf.

“Em, it just looks like a regular leaf.”

“But it’s so… red.” MJ said twisting the stem so she could see it at every angle. 

The leaf wasn’t the usual dull orange of a normal fallen leaf. It was a deep, blood red, along with all the other dropped leaves in the forest. She realized that to Peter, it was just a normal orange leaf. Pretty, but normal.

“Sorry, everything looks so different for me.” She smirked, “Like. For instance. Did you know your skin has a pattern to it? Like, to me you look all stripey. Like a tiger.” Her finger brushed against his cheek, tracing the pattern. She didn’t see it when she first woke up because the nearby window muted a little bit of the UV light. But now that they were outside and in direct sunlight, the pattern really stood out.

“Really?” Peter asked, touching his own face.

“Yeah. Everyone has a pattern. Some are patchy, some are splotchy, others are swirly. But yours, yours is stripey.” MJ leaned forward, Peter met her in the middle, and they kissed in the shade of an oak tree. At least, MJ thought it looked like an oak tree. With her new vision it was really hard to tell. As she pulled back she caught movement in the corner of her eye. She turned to track it and visibly jumped.

“What is that?!” She cried pointing to a-

“It's a crow, Em… Just a regular old crow.” 

MJ couldn’t believe it. “Really? That is a crow,” She said incredulously.

It didn’t even look like it belonged on earth. It’s vibrant rainbow plumage looked more at home in a fey realm or something.

“Yup,” Peter reiterated. “Just a crow.”

They continued on their jaunt through the forest, MJ every once in a while excitedly pointing at something mundane, while Peter had to remind her that the fantastical looking plant was just a normal weed or something. 

“So um,” MJ said after another few minutes into their walk. “About the whole ‘I have superpowers thing.’”

Peter winced. Oh, this was a conversation he’d been dreading. “Yeah?”

“I want to be out there with you, Peter,” MJ said, in her usual frankness. 

“I… I know.” Peter took a deep breath. “And part of me would love to have you with me, swinging through Manhattan, webbing up bank robbers and stuff… but…”

“But?”

“Em. It’s more than just patrolling the neighborhood, sometimes it gets really dangerous-” Peter began.

“I know. I’m not stupid Peter. But I have comparable powers to you. I think we’ll be fine.” MJ argued.

Peter pinched the bridge of his nose, “It’s not about having powers, Em. It’s about the responsibility.”

“What, you don’t think I’m responsible enough?” She huffed, starting to really get aggravated by his dismissive attitude.

“No, that’s not what I mean.” Peter tried to tamp down his growing frustration. “I _know_ you have the personal responsibility, Em. It’s not about that. It’s about the responsibility that people will put on your shoulders, what they’ll expect of you-”

“And you don’t think I can handle it!?”

“No!” Peter shouted, before catching himself. He took a deep breath, and tried again. “No. I know you can. I don’t want you to _have_ to! I don’t want you to be forced to give, and give, ground down and chipped away until there’s nothing left...” 

MJ watched the glow of Peter’s cheeks grow to encompass his eyes, watched the hot tears leave long glowing tracks down his face. She kissed the tear tracks away, leaving lightly glowing lip marks in their stead.

“Peter, why do you think I want to do this?” MJ whispered. “Yes, I want to help people. But most of all, I want to help you.” She kissed his forehead. “I see what being Spider-man is doing to you, Peter. I’m not blind. And I know you’ll never stop, despite how much pressure it puts on you. I wanna take some of that off of you, so that you _won’t_ be slowly ground down, so that I _won’t_ ,” Her voice cracked, “S-so I won’t have to lose you one day…”

Peter realized that she wasn’t going to back down. And more than that, she was making some good points. He took a deep breath, and gave in. “Okay. After the baby is born, after you have a lot, and I mean a _lot_ of training,” he smirked, “You can be my side-kick.”

“ _Oh_ no,” she growled, exuding pseudo-anger. “Nope. I am not going to be a dumb sidekick. I’m gonna be my own spider-themed superhero!”

“Oh really, then what’s your made-up name going to be?” Peter smirked, “Spider-girl?” The look of unbridled rage from MJ actually set off his spider sense. “Uh, Spider… woman?” 

Ah, there it was, the classic MJ ‘I can’t believe you’re so god-damned stupid’ look. “No,” she growled. “I was thinking something that could set me apart as my own superhero. Like… maybe Arachne?”

“Hey, that’s actually a really good name.” Peter said, feeling slightly less in imminent danger. “Wait, didn’t she challenge Athena to a weaving contest and made a tapestry dissing the gods or something? And didn’t Athena turn her into the first spider as punishment for her arrogance?”

MJ shrugged, “Yeah, but only people as nerdy as us would ever know that, so I think I’m good.”

* * *

Michelle earnestly asking her if she could become a superhero in the not-to-distant future was one of _the_ strangest experiences of Monica’s life. Though, considering how off the wall bat-shit insane her life had become in the past four-ish months, she should have just expected it right now.

At first she didn’t really know how to process it all, the fact that her daughter developed superhuman abilities from being pregnant with her superhero boyfriend’s baby. She eventually just took a page out of May’s book, which was just to shrug and accept her new normal. She really wished she had that woman's capacity to accept the insanity of it all.

Speaking of superhero boyfriends, Monica took a sip of coffee as Peter came walking into her kitchen, a veritable spring in his step. The one thing, _one thing_ that annoyed her about Peter was that he was a… _morning person_. Just thinking the words put a sour taste in her mouth.

“Morning, Monica!” Peter said entirely too chipper. He had tried all the different formal prefixes. 'Mrs.' didn't work because Monica wasn't married and it just reminded her of her depressing single-ness. 'Ms.' didn't work either, because it made Peter feel like he was talking down to her. So Monica had the distinct privilege of being one of the very few adults Peter referred to informally.

“Good morning, Peter.” Monica said, resisting the urge to growl the greeting. “Is Michelle still asleep?”

Peter nodded, busying himself by making breakfast. Dammit. She couldn’t be annoyed by him when he always made her and her daughter food in the morning. 

Her daughter shuffled into the kitchen a few minutes later, her bed head framing her face like the tentacles of some kind of eldritch abomination. She said nothing, only grumbled half intelligible responses to Peter’s greeting. With half lidded eyes, she ate the berries and honey topped oatmeal Peter presented her with. 

Monica had to stifle a laugh as she watched her daughter’s hand inch ever closer to her mug of coffee. “Michelle, I am not a t-rex. My vision isn’t cued in by sudden movement,” Monica said as she grabbed the mug and hugged it close to her chest. “You aren’t supposed to have caffeine, baby-girl.”

“Hey, did you know that theory about t-rex vision was discredited? Also, you probably should take a shower Em. We don’t wanna be late for our first day back at school.” Peter said as he took the bowls to be washed. 

Michelle groaned, “But I don’ wanna…” After a full week of sleeping in past noon, waking up at 6:30 in the morning was practically torture.

“Michelle, go take your shower.” Monica said with an air of finality.

Michelle whined one last time and lurched her way into the bathroom. When the shower ran for a full half hour with no sign of sign of stopping, Monica rapped her knuckles against the bathroom door.

“You didn’t drown or anything, did you?” Monica asked.

Under the sound of the spraying water, Monica could just barely hear the reply. “Let me take my long ass shower in peace, woman!”

Monica blinked in disbelief. 

Peter winced, trying to diffuse the situation. “Okay, I know she said something… untoward. But you gotta remember her condition and-”

“Child, shut your face.”

“Shutting my face, ma’am.”

Another ten minutes later, and Michelle emerged from the bathroom, an extra large towel loosely draped around her body. She muttered something about tiny hot water heaters all the way to her bedroom. Another five minutes, and Michelle came out, dressed and ready for the day.

As usual, she went for an over-sized jacket, loose fitting jeans, and a gigantic button up. Monica idly wondered about pulling all her old maternity clothes out of storage for her daughter as she dropped the two of them off at school.

Her and Peter walked through the halls, hand in hand as they usually did. And as they went, they couldn’t help but notice people staring. It was their first day back since they announced the pregnancy, and word had obviously gotten out. She didn’t blame her team, she didn’t explicitly say she didn’t want them talking about it or anything. 

But as people stared and whispered, she had wished her friends had slightly more discretion. The stares they could take. Those were easy enough to ignore. But the whispers… People thought they were being discreet. And to anyone a normal range of hearing, they were. But Peter and MJ’s hearing was so terribly better than normal. Of course they heard every word.

_“Jeez, you can hardly tell she’s pregnant…”_

_“Nah, she’s just wearing really baggy clothes. You can totally tell.”_

_“Man, I didn’t think Parker had it in him.”_

_“Are you kidding? I’d let him put a baby in me too for one night with him and his washboard abs.”_

_“I dunno, man. Michelle is the last person I’d ever see as maternal.”_

_“Yeah, like… I didn’t think she ever wanted kids, let alone have one in high school.”_

What they were saying wasn’t as bad as MJ was expecting. It honestly could have been a lot worse. But it still hurt. A lot. She subconsciously walked closer and closer to Peter as they went farther and farther into the school, until eventually his arm wrapped protectively around her waist as she tucked her head into the crook of his shoulder. It took all of her willpower to walk into class. But once she was there, it got a little bit better. 

People she knew personally didn’t talk behind her back, and if they did it wasn’t anything bad. Some of her class acquaintances even came up to her offering congratulations, telling her that she’d be a great mom, etc, etc. That was sweet enough to put her in a pretty decent mood as she walked into her AP english class.

A mood that almost instantly soured when she saw how Brad was looking at her. Okay, she knew she shouldn’t be giving a damn about what he thought of her. She knew he wasn’t trying to stay her friend because he just liked the pleasure of her company. It was all about swooping in when she and Peter inevitably broke up, offering a shoulder to cry on, and a rebound relationship that hopefully would blossom into something more. She knew that was what he was about from the beginning. But knowing all that didn’t make it hurt any less when he finally made his intentions obvious.

He spent the entire class glowering at her. She could see him out of the corner of her eye. Brad sat in right in the middle of a beam of light from the nearby window. And the UV bath from the sun allowed her to see in exquisite detail the crinkles of his frown. That was one of the things about her new UV vision. Strictly speaking, it didn’t make her vision any better. She could just see colors and patterns not visible to normal people, that was all. But there was one area where it was straight up better. The added contrast highlighted the dips and rises in peoples' faces, allowing her to more accurately judge someone’s expressions. And right now, she could clearly see Brad’s barely contained contempt for her. 

It all came to a head when Brad cornered her as she was leaving the class. He literally cornered her, body blocking her so she was pressed up against the corner of the hallway. 

“Well, I guess we know how Peter was able to miss so many Acadec practices and still stay on the team,” Brad practically spat. “Too bad you had to be saddled with his kid, all for a quick fling.”

“What the fuck, Brad?!” MJ growled. What the fuck gave him any right to comment on how she ran her team? He wasn’t even in Acadec! Criticizing something he had no part in was almost as infuriating to her as his implications.

For whatever reason, he decided it was a good idea to continue speaking, and made his implications very, very explicit. “Cuz like, honestly, how else were you gonna get laid other than leveraging your position as team captain. I find- found you attractive because you’re smart and you aren’t half bad to look at, but seriously, your bitchiness is a major turn-off to a lot of guys.”

MJ took a deep breath, very consciously aware of how even just pushing him away a little too roughly could result in broken bones. And as much as Brad was a dick, he didn’t really deserve a trip to the hospital. But holy fucking shit was he pushing his luck.

“Okay, first off. Fuck you. You don’t think I know your game, Bradley?” She took a step forward, delighting in the fact that Brad took more than a few steps back in fear. “Because I know you were fake as fuck from the beginning. Your entire goal was to wait in the wings until Peter and I had a falling out and swoop into my pants riding a wave of fake charm. And don’t fucking lie, Bradley. You’re fucking obsessed with me. Why else would you be so mad that Peter and I are having a kid. One that we want, by the way. So you can keep your abortion comments to yourself.”

She took another step forward, and another, and another, until she had him up against the wall for a change. “This is your only warning, Brad. Don’t talk to me again or so help me, I will lay your ass out. And don’t you even _think_ about talking about me, Peter, or our kid behind our backs. Because I _will_ find out and I _won’t_ be happy.”

Logically, he had no reason to fear her. He had no idea about her augmented strength or hearing. To him, she was just an angry pregnant girl. Honestly, what was the worst she could do to him? But it didn’t matter. For some strange, subconscious reason he was truly, genuinely afraid of her. All he could do was screw his eyes shut and nod so fast it made him dizzy, hoping she’d leave him alone. Luckily for him, she exercised extreme personal restraint and walked away.

* * *

“On your left,” Ned said in a bored tone. He watched through Peter’s mask mounted video feed as a guy in the very back left of the group reached for something.

“Yeah, I see him,” Peter replied over comms. He was currently in the process of stopping another bank robbery. Peter ducked a punch, focusing on the person in question as he began to draw a pistol from his hip holster. The guy didn’t even get the barrel free before his gun and hand alike got webbed to his hip.

Peter continued apprehending the bad guys, with Ned occasionally calling out targets of opportunity. Karen was still being worked on, so it was up to Ned to have Peter’s back. Well, Ned and MJ.

MJ watched Peter’s feed from a tablet, as she lounged on the bed. The action quickly wound down as one by one the bank robbers were apprehended by expert web-shots. Seeing his callouts were no longer needed, Ned turned off his headset mic. He pulled a sandwich bag full of what looked like homemade candies out of his backpack.

“Pastilla for your thoughts?” He asked as he held one out for her.

MJ took it, only mildly suspicious. “ Pastilla?”

“Pastillas de leche. Filipino milk candy.”

MJ unwrapped the soft white cylinder and took a cautious bite. It wasn’t that she thought the unfamiliar candy might taste bad or something. On the contrary, she knew from experience that if Ned’s mom made it, it was bound to be delicious. It was just that she had to be extra careful now, because unfamiliar flavors tended to trigger waves of nausea.

To her delight, her caution was entirely unwarranted. The simple looking candy was really, really good. The soft, simply sweet dairy flavor was just what she needed right now. Lately she’d been craving dairy based sweets, and she’d just cleaned out Peter and May’s last carton of ice cream.

“Oh my god,” She whispered reverently. “Can I-”

Ned anticipated her request and tossed her the entire bag mid sentence. 

“Can I really have all these?”

Ned nodded, “Sure. They’re really easy to make and we have a ton at home. I can get you the recipe from my mom, if you want.”

“That would be lovely,” MJ said, mouth already full with another.

“So,” Ned continued, “What’s got you all in a funk?”

MJ sighed. “Brad was a dick, that’s all.”

“Really?” Ned said as he leaned on his arm, expecting her to elaborate.

She might as well. This wasn’t exactly something she felt comfortable telling Peter just yet. As much as Brad was a douche to her, he didn’t deserve to have the wrath of Spider-man sicked on him just yet.

“Yeah, he just said some really fucked up things. I expected it. It was how I dealt with it in the moment, and his reaction that really has me thinking.”

“Go on…” 

MJ bit her lip. “Okay. So I kind of went off on him. Threatened to knock him on his ass if he ever talked to me again.”

“Go MJ,” Ned replied with a smirk.

“Okay, and like. That really freaked him out for some reason. Like, he looked ready to piss his pants.” 

“Maybe he’s just a wimp?” Ned postulated.

“It’s more than that. It was actual, visceral instinctive fear.” MJ ran her fingers through her hair. “Which doesn’t make any sense. He has no reason to actually be afraid of me, if you think about it from his perspective. He doesn’t know about my powers, obviously. So like, what is a punch from me gonna do? Tickle his chin a bit? But for some reason he looked genuinely scared for his life-”

Ned held up a hand. “Sorry, hold that thought. Just got word of a fire over the police scanner.” Ned turned the headset mic back on. “Hey, you heard that too right?” 

“Yeah,” Peter said as he made a running leap off the roof of an office building. “What’s the best route?”

And just like that, MJ was left alone with her thoughts, as Peter and Ned spent the rest of the night coordinating a fire-fighting effort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so about MJ's comments about everyone having a pattern to their skin. That's based on Blaschko's lines, which are basically... uh, just look them up on google. The thing is, I don't know if they're visible in the UV spectrum, so I'm kinda making that part up. And the thing about the crow is based on how corvids have a very subtle iridescence to their feathers that I think is way, way more obvious in the UV spectrum. 
> 
> Surprise surprise, Brad is a dick! Show of hands, who is actually surprised by this. Ah, no one I see. Yeah, I think it is physically impossible for me to write a sympathetic and/or not douchey Brad. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think most fic authors are in the same camp as me. Actually, that's a prompt and a half, a genuine MJxBrad story that doesn't make Brad a dick and end up with Peter and MJ together anyway. I think I'd rather eat a used hypodermic needle. Okay, not really, but you get the idea.
> 
> Oh, also, thank you so much to everyone reading! I'm really glad this has the kind of following that it does. Anywho, stay safe, stay sane, stay inside if at all possible (no matter what our sorry excuse for a president says). See you all next time!


	9. Meet the Family

Peter woke as he would on any other normal day, on his side with his arm wrapped around his girlfriend’s round belly, and a face full of her voluminous hair. He loved waking up to that almost every day. But as his mental faculties slowly returned to him and he realized that this  _ wasn’t _ an average day. It was Thanksgiving. 

Which also meant today was the day when he’d finally meet MJ’s extended family. And he couldn’t help but feel a certain sense of trepidation. Of course, MJ told him some stuff about her family. About how when her mother was cruelly kicked out of her home at fourteen, her great aunt Agnes took her in without question. He knew Monica had cousins that she considered siblings, and that in general they were all very protective of Michelle.

That was why he was so nervous. He was the guy who was allergic to latex and who got their Michelle pregnant at age seventeen. MJ told him about how she already explained everything to her family, and how they were very supportive people by nature and that he had nothing to fear. But still. He was meeting her family for the first time. Of course he was going to be just a little nervous.

Peter turned to glance at the wall clock. They had to get up soon if they were going to get there early enough to help with the cooking. He stroked her face, gently whispering, “Hey, Em. Time to wake up.”

She responded by whining and batting his hand away. 

Damn. Time for the big guns. He took a deep breath and blew a raspberry against the crook of her neck, while his fingers danced across her ribs. He knew all her tickle spots by now, and wasn’t afraid of judiciously using them.

MJ squealed, her body shaking with peels of laughter. “Okay, okay! I’m up!” More tickles. “Noo~oo! Peter I’m up!” 

“Are you sure? You still seem sleepy.” Peter’s light rib poking was unrelenting.

MJ squealed, “Staahhp! Pregnant lady, remember? Blad badder control!”

Peter giggled, “What was that?” Thankfully his tickles abated.

“Blad badder control!” MJ repeated, gasping for breath.

“Gotcha. And what does that mean exactly?” Peter asked through barely restrained laughter.

“Bla-” Then the realization sank in. “Bad bladder control! You know what I mean, you doof!”

Peter lost it, literally biting his knuckle in a vain attempt to hold back the giggles.

“No! Stop makin’ fun of me!” MJ pouted, her bottom lip quivering. “It’s not my fault I got preggo brain.” She sniffed for effect.

“Oh, I’m sorry, don’t cry,” he smirked as he went in for a kiss. Despite their light time crunch, they committed to a light wake-up make out session. They pulled away after a couple of minutes, Peter kissing his way down her body until he got to her belly. He planted one last kiss just above her navel before pressing his ear to her taut skin.

Their baby’s heartbeat was much, much stronger now, approaching something of a regular infant rhythm. With his ear against MJ’s belly, he could even hear the gentle sloshing of fluid as their baby moved around.

This was something that Peter did almost every morning, and MJ loved it. She ran her fingers through his curls, trying to burn the image of Peter so content against her belly. By Dr. Cho’s estimate, she was just over 20 weeks now, and MJ was keenly aware that mornings like this weren’t going to happen forever. 

“Hey, are you two awake yet? We gotta get going somewhat soon if we don’t wanna be late!” May called as she gently knocked on Peter’s door.

“We’re up,” MJ replied.

And just like that, the moment was over. But that was okay. There would be more. They got ready together, Peter of course being ready to go in literally half an hour flat. MJ normally didn’t take that long either, but she decided to go a little extra distance today. Makeup normally wasn’t her style, but she made an exception for a holiday she actually liked. She didn’t go overboard, because again, not her style. That, and she didn’t really know how to do anything more than a little smokey eyeshadow.

After a good ten minutes of trying to find somewhat nice looking clothes that fit, MJ gave up and decided to wear the hand-me-down maternity clothes her mom leant her. Today’s fit was a somewhat form fitting horizontal striped maternity dress, along with a loose grey shawl and warm winter leggings. With combat boots. Because why not?

Ready to rock turkey day, MJ casually hooked her arm around Peter’s waist as they collectively piled into May’s car.

* * *

MJ watched brooklyn townhouses lazily drift by the window. By now she had become more or less totally accustomed to the way the world looked to her. The strange color filter over everything no longer gave her a migraine, the extreme sharpness of even the most distant objects didn’t cause her eyes to ache, and the glowing splashes on people’s faces no longer unnerved her to the point where she couldn’t look people in the eye.

She felt Peter’s hand snake into hers, could feel his nervous pulse against her hand. She focused her hearing on his anxious heart, turning away from the window to lay her head down in the crook of his neck. 

MJ lightly ran her lips along his neck. “Why’re you so nervous? Normally you’re fine with meeting new people.” 

MJ heard Peter’s heartbeat relax a bit, soothed by her touch. “Em, I’m the new boyfriend meeting the family for the first time. I have every right to be nervous.”

“Maybe,” MJ murmured into his neck. “But my family’s great. You worry too much, dork.”

“MJ’s right, Peter,” May interjected from the driver’s seat. “If anything, I’m the one who has to be worried. I’m not sure I’ll be much help in the kitchen…”

That was why they were showing up in the late morning. In MJ’s family, you didn’t just show up to pig out on food you had no help in preparing. They made Thanksgiving dinner together, and enjoyed it together. Well, that was normally the case. MJ’s mom had to work, so she’d be showing up right around when dinner was ready. But she had special dispensation because she couldn’t finagle her way into getting Thanksgiving off. 

“Don’t worry, they’ll probably put you on veggie chopping duty or something. Easy stuff.” MJ replied.

May glanced down at her fingers, hoping to still have all ten of them by the end of the day. “Oh yeah. Sure, I can do that.”

Eventually they turned onto a street that MJ was intimately familiar with. The rather narrow streets flanked by long lines of wall to wall rowhouses. Back in the day, they used to be tenement housing for poor immigrant families. By the time Aunt Agnes bought hers in the 50’s they were already not the cheapest houses in the world. By the time MJ’s mom moved in with Agnes’s family in the early 2000’s, well, it was a multi-million dollar home. 

Peter nervously bounced on the balls of his feet as MJ knocked on the front door. A jovial hispanic woman around MJ’s mom’s age answered the door.

“Oh, Shelly! Look at you mija, you’re glowing!” She said as she squeezed MJ in a hug. 

MJ laughed as she returned the hug, “Nah, I’m just sweating.” She pulled away, turning to Peter and May. “This is my auntie Rio. Be careful, she’s a-”

Rio immediately squashed Peter in a bone crushing embrace, before doing the same to May.

“Hugger…” MJ continued belatedly.

“Oh, come on out of the cold and we can introduce you all to the family proper,” Rio said as she excitedly led them into the house. 

MJ couldn’t help but sigh in contentment. This was her childhood home. She lived here for the first twelve years of her life, and despite being comfortable with the apartment she and her mother shared, this would always be her first home. Back when it was first built, it was meant to accommodate multiple families, with three floors of bedrooms and bathrooms. And each bedroom/bathroom house had its own kitchen/living room/dining room floor. Effectively it was three separate apartments all sharing the same stairwell. But now it was a shared house for her huge extended family.

Her uncle Jeff was in the middle of coming down the stairs when they walked into the parlor area. “Shelly!” He paused, a nostalgic smile spreading across his face. “Oh, that outfit takes me back. Don’t tell your mom, but you rock it better,” he said as he walked down to hug her. 

“Oh, don’t worry. I can keep a secret.” MJ lied. She was going to hold this over her mom’s head until the heat death of the universe.

“And you must be Peter,” the towering man said as he shook Peter’s hand. “I’m Shelly’s uh… well technically I’m her second cousin once removed, but Uncle Jeff is so much easier.

Peter had to force himself to not stare, because he already knew the guy in a weird way. He first met him as Spider-man. Jefferson and his partner were pinned down by gunfire from a couple dozen Maggia goons. Spider-man swooped in and webbed up and/or distracted enough of them for Jefferson and his partner to duck back into their car and call for backup. Peter was almost shot seventeen times, and actually shot twice. Luckily his suit took one round, and the other barely punched through, only going in about a half an inch into his thigh. That was a fun day. 

“Hello, sir. I’m Peter. But uh, you already know that I guess,” Peter replied awkwardly.

“I’m Peter’s aunt May,” she said as Jeff went to shake her hand. 

Rio called up the stairs, “Mijo! Come down, Shelly’s here.”

There was an excited stomping sound as someone on the floor above them practically ran to the stairs.

“And don’t slide down the-” Rio began as a younger looking hopped on the railing and excitedly slid down.

“Shelly! Wow, you look um…” The kid said awkwardly.

“Pregnant, I know,” MJ finished for him as she pulled her gangly cousin into a hug. “This is Miles. Say hi to my boyfriend and his aunt, Miles.”

“Hi to my boyfriend and his aunt.”

Peter coughed as he bit back a bark of laughter. Oh, he had a sinking suspicion he and this kid were going to get along swimmingly. MJ on the other hand, rolled her eyes, before sighing to herself. It was so weird, seeing Miles as a teenager. When she… disappeared, Miles was a nine year old doofus who practically worshipped the ground she walked on. Now he was a fourteen year old smartass.

“Okay, go help in the kitchen,” Jefferson said, equally unenthused as MJ was.

Someone stepped through the door behind them, and Peter did a double take. He recognized the guy. He couldn’t recall his name, but he was certain it was the guy who gave him the lead back when he was working to take down the Vulture and his crew.

“Oh, you done messed up, A-a-ron.” MJ said with an arched eyebrow as her uncle Aaron walked in the door with a plastic bag full of spray paints.

Her uncle rolled his eyes as he gave his mouthy niece a side hug. “Don’t give me that, Shelly. I was working on a community mural.”

“Besides, you really think he’d take his wife and kid tagging?” Another voice said from just outside the doorway.

“I dunno, Iz. You’re pretty hardcore,” MJ smiled as she hugged her other auntie, being careful not to smoosh the eight month old baby in her arms.

Isobel, Aaron’s wife, fully embraced MJ… and almost immediately passed her baby off into MJ’s arms.

Iz laughed at MJ’s shocked expression. “Oh, come on Shelly. You’re gonna need to learn how to hold a baby sometime.” She appraised her young niece’s condition, eyes tracing the swell of MJ’s belly. “Sooner rather than later, by the looks of things.”

MJ rolled her eyes, “Two things, I know how to hold a baby, thank you very much,” she demonstrated by settling Tom-tom into her elbow. “Secondly, I got around nineteen weeks to go, Iz. It’s gonna take a while.” With a gleeful smile that Peter had rarely seen on MJ’s face, she planted kisses all over the giggling baby’s cheeks. “Oh, oh muh lil’ Tom-tom, you’se gots such chub chub cheeks, I can’t stop kissin’ em!  _ Muah! Muah! Muah!” _

Oh, you hear that? That was the sound of Peter’s heart imploding from the sheer unadulterated cuteness. See, he’d seen how MJ cooed over her belly, even singing lullabies to their unborn baby at night… But he’d never thought he’d see MJ so… overtly parental. An idea that seemed so absurd now. Of course she’d go all cutesy for a baby…

“Ice cream guy…” Peter whispered as he shook Aaron’s hand.

“What’s that kid?”

“Oh, n-nothing. It’s great to meet you, sir.” Peter replied quickly.

“Sir!” Aaron said with a twinkle in his eyes, “Look man, I’m not my brother. There’s no need for that kinda talk.”

The introductions continued rather smoothly, until they were interrupted by two voices from the garden floor kitchen. “I tell ya, child, the skin needs more salt!”

Then a reply, “Do ya want it to taste like the dead sea, ya old bat?”

MJ rolled her eyes and passed Tom-tom over to Peter. Iz and Aaron didn’t seem to mind, but boy was Peter kinda out of his element. He held the baby a little more upright than MJ did, but Tom-tom seemed to be able to handle it. He was old enough to hold his head up. But Tom-tom didn’t wanna. He wanted to lay his head on his new friend’s chest. And boy, did that make Peter’s heart flutter in a big way.

But it was short lived. MJ waved Peter and May into the kitchen. Two older women argued over a huge turkey in a roasting rack sitting on the dining room table. One woman was clearly older, in her early eighties at least, while the other woman looked to be in her sixties and a little heavier set. 

“Monica, tell your- Oh… Shelly, look at you,” the older woman struggled to her feet, leaning heavily on a cane. She immediately wrapped MJ in a… well, it would have been a bone-crushing hug, but Agnes was getting up in years.

“You look so much like your mother, Shelly,” the woman who Peter could only assume was aunt Agnes said with barely contained tears. 

MJ shrugged awkwardly, “Oh, you know… I just copied her good fashion sense. Anyway… Peter!”

“Yes?” Peter said as he fully walked into the room. He clutched the baby in his arms to his chest for luck. Because he was met with the two most intimidating gazes he’d ever seen. And he faced down Thanos.

“So, this is your guy, huh Shelly?” The younger of the older women asked. 

MJ rolled her eyes for the tenth time that day. “Well, I don’t like to think in terms of ownership, but yes Gigi. This is Peter.”

Gigi and Agnes shared a glance. 

“What do you think, mama?” Gigi asked.

“I don’t rightly know, Virginia. Tom-tom seems to take a liking to him.” Agnes replied.

Gigi nodded knowingly. “That’s what I thought too… Hm…”

Agnes let go of her young niece, and approached Peter, who had a hard time keeping his knees from knocking. Now that it was closer, Peter could see the cane she carried. It had a panther head for the handle, blackened burnished steel. The panther head was collared with a tri color ring. Black, red and green. The wood was a dark polished ebony. Peter’s eyes flickered from the cane to Agnes’ unflinching gaze. The only coherent thought that came to Peter’s mind was that even deeply entrenched in her golden years, Agnes was a fierce and formidable woman. He idly wondered what she was like in her youth…

“Hmm indeed, Gigi.” Agnes said, still staring Peter in the eye. Peter stared back, trying to be unflinching… An effect that was sort of ruined by Tom-tom’s gentle cooing. 

“Huh. Well, he ain’t a coward, Shelly. I’ll give him that,” Agnes said after a moment.

“Yes, can you stop traumatizing my boyfriend now!” MJ said, clearly getting a bit on edge.

Gigi winced. “Ah, mama. I think we made a bad impression on the kid.”

Agnes softened up immediately, pulling Peter into her best hug. “Sorry ‘bout that, son. Shelly is so precious to us, we want to see her safe and happy. But she chose you, and I like to think we helped raise her right, so…”

Gigi rolled her eyes, and all at once Peter learned where MJ got her technique from.

“I hate to intimidate you and put ya to work, kid. But everyone helps out in the kitchen.” Gigi said, gesturing to the piles of food all along the many countertops. Miles had been chopping away the entire time, and he’d barely made a dent in the mountain of assorted vegetables.

* * *

May had a much easier introduction. In fact, Peter thought it was almost unfair. But he didn’t have time to get very worked up about it. They had food to make. Peter eventually had to hand Tom-tom back to his mother, much to both of their chagrin. But Peter was on gumbo duty with Miles, May taking over his vegetable chopping duty.

Aaron and Jeff were in the back, supervising the smoking of four entire racks of ribs and a whole brisket. Peter didn’t know if smoked barbecue was a normal southern Thanksgiving thing, but he didn’t care. Turkey, who cares about turkey when you can have barbecue! Then he learned the turkey was to be smoked too. This was already shaping up to be the best thanksgiving ever.

“Alright, we have to get this thing in the smoker, like now if we’re going to eat by seven,” MJ said as she picked up the seventeen pound turkey, pan and all. 

“Hold on, Shelly, let me help,” Miles said as he took a pause from stirring the roux. Peter luckily took his place. 

MJ waved him away, “I got it Miles.”

“Damn girl, you got strong…” Iz said, taking a break from helping Rio with the tamales.

MJ shrugged as she walked through the sliding glass door. “Come on, it’s only like. Twenty pounds. Jeez, I’m not a weenie.”

Peter smirked to himself. Of course a twenty pound turkey would be no problem for MJ. He’d seen her lift the approximate weight of a heavy duty pickup truck.

Once the turkey was in the smoker, MJ joined her boyfriend at the stove, showing him how to properly cook collard greens. Agnes and Gigi worked on black eyed peas and red beans and rice respectfully. By now Iz and Rio had begun the ambitious construction of sixty tamales, twenty beef, twenty chicken, and twenty jalapeno and cheese. Miles left the gumbo to simmer and worked on the cornbread biscuits. And May… well, May handled the mashed potatoes well enough.

They were a well oiled machine, using the fact the house had multiple kitchens and therefore multiple ovens and stoves to their full advantage. MJ and Peter got their job done the quickest, followed quickly by Miles and the cornbread biscuits. Which therefore left them free to get started on the deserts. 

MJ showed Peter the wonders of shoofly pie, while Miles got cracking on the pecan pie. May had long since finished the mashed potatoes, so she worked on a pumpkin pie. May wasn’t the greatest cook in the world, but one thing she could make well enough was pumpkin pie. It was around this time where Agnes and Gigi could step away from the black eyed peas and black beans and rice and start on a wonderful new york cheesecake. Because it  _ all _ couldn’t be southern soul food, could it?

Everything came together like clockwork around seven pm. The smoked meats were laid out on the huge dining room table to rest, the pies and cheesecake were on racks in the windowsills to cool, the tamales were just finishing up steaming, and all their various sides were safely stowed in the ovens set to the lowest setting to keep them warm.

It was then that Monica stepped through the front door, right on time.

“Mama!” MJ cried as she hugged her mom. Of course she was overly affectionate, she was pregnant and hormonal.

Monica laughed, holding her daughter tight. “Smells like I got here just in time.”

The table was set in short order. Peter and Mj were together, of course, with Monica and May next to them. Gigi and Agnes sat at opposite ends of the table. They’d tear each other’s head’s off otherwise. Miles, Rio and Jeff were kinda squished together on their side of the table, because Aaron and Iz needed adequate space to fit in a very special high chair.

“So,” Aaron said as he pulled a very old, but still in very good condition, high chair from the closet. It was all hard-wood and weighed a ton for what it was. But that was because it was from a time where the longevity of a product was more valued. “This is the high chair that Agnes bought for mama when she was a baby, and that Jeff and I used when we were babies. Tom-tom has free reign of it for now, but I think he’s gonna have to give it up for when your kid comes, Shelly.”

MJ smiled into her hand. “They can take turns, we’ll switch holidays or something.”

Once everyone was more or less comfortably seated, they one by one said what they were thankful for. And when it got to Peter and MJ’s turn well… Peter’s ears glowed brightly to MJ’s eyes as he started.

“I- Uh… I’m thankful for… For MJ agreeing to go out with me in the first place… Everything might not have gone one hundred percent to plan but… Honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way…”

MJ was glad she was the only one who could see a little into the infrared spectrum. Because otherwise, her olive complexion made it a bit difficult to tell when she was blushing. It was her turn. Normally she always struggled to come up with something unique. It always turned into a cookie cutter ‘I’m thankful for my family and our health’ or some other bullshit. No one said anything because like, they were in the same position. But still.

But now… now she could say for certain she had something to be very thankful for. “Everyone here knows I had an incident that required an extended stay at the hospital a month ago. And…” she turned to look Peter dead in the eye, trying to convey with a look what she couldn’t say out loud in present company. “I am so very thankful everything turned out okay. Better than okay, even.” Everyone not ‘in the know’ wondered what MJ meant by that last part, but thankfully no one asked.

And with that, everyone dug in. Peter watched with barely restrained glee as Aaron and Iz took turns scarfing down what they could, before spooning mushy peas and carrots into Tom-tom’s eager mouth. And when they took too long he scrunched up his face and huffed through his nose. 

Miles on the other hand, couldn’t believe the veritable mountain of food his cousin had before her. He quickly glanced away when he realized MJ noticed him staring.

“I’m eating for two Miles, it’s not that weird.” MJ said, stripping a barbecue rib in record time. 

Miles gulped, “Oh, it’s not that Shelly. Normally you don’t eat so much meat…”

MJ had a personal policy. Ninety percent of the year she was totally, one hundred percent vegetarian, vegan if at all possible. But, starting a week before Thanksgiving she’d always start slowly introducing meat back into her diet. Because while her family argued they could make vegetarian options for her, MJ didn’t want them to go through the trouble just for her. So during the holidays, she became what she called a guilty vegetarian, and would indulge in small amounts of meat.

Only this time it wasn’t a small amount. Her plate was piled high with slices of smoked turkey slathered in gravy made from its drippings, she had a quarter rack of ribs to herself, and several more slices of smoked brisket. Of course, she had collard greens and spinach salad to balance out the nutritional aspect. She needed her greens, after all. 

Rio looked at MJ’s plate, wondering about the overwhelming amount of animal protein, not so much about the quantity itself. “That is much more meat than you normally have, mija.”

MJ sighed guiltily, whilst cutting into a slice of brisket with the side of her fork. “Yeah, it’s the brat’s fault. They want meat… and I don’t want to deny them something they might genuinely need…”

It was actually a source of tremendous guilt for MJ. She had reintroduced meat back into her diet over a month ago, and animal protein had dominated her plate ever since. But what could she say? Her pregnancy made her crave it, and what her baby demanded, she had to give it. 

Peter and May learned a lot of things through talking with MJ and Monica’s family that night. Agnes confirmed what Peter already suspected, that she and her daughter were pretty big figures in the New York Black Panther party back in the day. A mother daughter duo that could not be stopped, for sure.

Apparently Aaron and Jeff both had pasts rife with gang issues. Jeff left that life behind first, joining the NYPD to do some good, repair a community he helped hurt. Aaron took longer to go legit, but apparently a run in with a certain friendly neighborhood Spider-man a few years back had convinced him. He met Iz in a recovery program to help get his life back together. She had done some… serious stuff too. And they soon found out it was easier to help each other get back on track than go it alone. Tom-tom was born three years later.

Miles apparently was due to start at Midtown, but wanted to experience at least one year at a ‘normal’ high school, so he was going to enroll in his sophomore year. Which Peter thought was kind of bogus. It would have been cool to mentor Miles through his first year of high school…

* * *

Eventually everyone ate their fill. It was actually kind of ridiculous. They made so much food that between all of them they hardly made a dent. But that was how MJ’s family liked it. Thanksgiving leftovers usually continued to feed the family for at least a whole week. Once all the food was packed away, and May and Peter forced to take their own fair share home despite their protests, it was time for one of the collective family’s favorite traditions. Rewatching home videos…

“Look what I found Shelly!” Gigi said, her arms full with a very familiar looking wicker chest. MJ’s eyes widened… oh no…

“So Peter,” Aaron began, “We all figured since you’re gonna be stuck with each other for a while, you might wanna get to know how the current Michelle came to be…”

MJ blushed furiously, and took deep breaths. She would bite this bullet… Monica and Rio dug around the catalogue of VHS tapes, trying to determine where to begin… 

“We could start from the very, very beginning,” Rio said, holding up a VHS whose sleeve was dated for MJ’s birthday… in fact, it was labeled, ‘Monica’s Labor- Happy Birthday Michelle Jones’.

Monica’s eyes widened, “Oh, I don’t think we could traumatize everyone with that…” Though she did surreptitiously sneak it into her purse. She actually did want Peter and MJ to see that, but in the privacy of their own room, on their own time. 

“We should start with Shelly’s first day home,” Agnes said with finality. MJ literally felt the tension release from her shoulders. She didn’t think she could handle watching her  _ own birth _ with the entire family…

The appropriate VHS was popped into the comparatively ancient player. After a burst of static on screen, Peter watched as a shaky image materialized on screen. After a few seconds, the camera person, who Peter eventually learned was Jeff, properly focused the lense on the subject.

The subject, being a newborn Michelle, lying peacefully in her crib. Peter had to admit. Michelle was a cute newborn. She had tufts of curly hair, and just…  _ the _ chubbiest cheeks he’d ever seen on a baby. She was safely swaddled in a grey swaddling blanket, printed with navy blue stars. If their kid took after MJ  _ at all _ they’d have the cutest baby in New York, easily.

“Jeff, if you wake her, I swear they will never find your body…” A very tired looking Monica said, half awake on a nearby bed. 

Peter did a double take, looking from fifteen year old Monica on screen, to the thirty three year old Monica to his left. Holy crap. She hadn’t aged a day! Well, kinda. In the way that a teenager has an inexperienced look to their face. Monica had lost that. But, otherwise, she was almost the exact same.

They spent the next couple hours looking through little ten minute snapshots of Michelle’s early life. Her first wobbly steps as she toddled over to her waiting mother’s arms. A very shaky three minutes of Jeff chasing her down as a one and a half year old, tiny baby MJ naked as the day she was born and shrieking with glee. MJ internally screamed. She would never hear the end of this..

One of Peter’s absolute favorites was of a three and a half year old MJ, standing on an upturned laundry basket. Apparently the context to this was she was trying to argue her case for more cookies after dinner.

“Mah-mah!” Tiny MJ began, “Cookie ‘r yums. Veggie r’ no’ yums. No yums,” She said, adjusting her imaginary tie and taking a sip of imaginary water. “I no like veggie. I luff cookie!” She shouted with barely restrained glee, hopping on her makeshift podium. “Mowuh cookie make me luff mah-mah mowuh!”

“You were very persuasive. I’d vote to give tiny baby you more cookies,” May said to a mortified MJ.

“It worked,” Rio said with a giggle, “Monica and I upped her daily cookies from three to five.”

Monica narrowed her eyes. “No… I kept it at three. We never discussed giving her more cookies… Rio, is there something you’d like to tell me, sissy?” 

Rio’s eyes widened, “Moving on!”

Monica always wondered why Rio seemed to be Michelle’s favorite person when she was a baby. Now she knew.

The next video of note was actually the day they brought Miles home, so Michelle wasn’t alone in the embarrassment boat. An eight year old MJ held a newborn Miles, looking very uncertain about what to do. Baby Miles let out a tiny ‘guh’ and threw up all over little Michelle’s shirt.

“I remember that! That was my favorite shirt, you little pest!” MJ said, pointing an accusatory finger at Miles.

“Shelly, I was three days old! I think that gives me a pass!” Miles said with raised arms.

“I hope my kid throws up on your shoes,” MJ said with narrowed eyes.

“Not my Jordans!”

They whiled away the hours watching MJ grow up, then smoothly transitioned into Miles’ baby years… Peter had more fun watching their crazy antics than he’d ever had in his life. His favorite was MJ and Miles putting aside their differences to work on modifying Miles’ nerf blasters so he could pelt his bullies from a hundred feet away.

* * *

Eventually though, it got rather late, and it was time for them to say their goodbyes. That night, while getting ready for bed, Peter kissed MJ with a bit more passion than he usually did with a good night kiss.

“What was that for?” MJ asked, just a little breathless.

Peter stared into her eyes. “I um… I never had that kind of experience before…” He began, “W-with a large family, I mean. Before, it was just me, my parents, Ben and May. Then… when I was six, it was just me, Ben and May. And until recently… it was just me and May.” MJ watched as Peter’s face glowed a bit brighter, his eyes growing hotter still as tears pooled. “I never had a big family Thanksgiving dinner before…”

“Oh…” MJ suddenly realized how big a deal that would have been to Peter. “W-well… Then I guess you and May can come every year. I like her pumpkin pie.” High praise. MJ normally intensely disliked pumpkin pie.

Peter laughed, going in for another kiss. And another… and another… before he started trailing kisses down her body… and… Well, they had planned on going to sleep early… but then stayed up to the small hours of the morning having… fun…

* * *

Meanwhile, in a secure facility a middle aged balding man with a bushy moustache stared at particular file on his desktop. It was a pretty small file, with a short video captured from a Stark Industries drone, and an image of a teenager’s passport. When Quentin died, he ordered William to head to their secret base of operations in an abandoned theater and release said video and image to the Daily Bugle. He didn’t. Because… he hated Tony Stark, and only Tony Stark. He had nothing against Pepper, or Happy or Peter Parker, or anyone Peter was associated with. 

But… He was running out of money. The funds Quentin had squirreled away in case their little operation went south had long since run dry. And he couldn’t try to get a normal job… or even leave the theater. Everyone associated with Beck was being hunted down by SI security agents. With no other choice, he started a video call…

“Gargan. I have a proposition for you…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! So. Yeah, I know it's been forever since my last update. Sheltering in place had me down for a while and I lost all motivation. Plus, this chapter has a lot of different characters interacting, and as cool as it was for me to write and flesh out MJ's family, it gets kinda exhausting writing all those different interactions. So between the two I had a serious case of writer's block. But it's over now. And as recompense this chapter is almost twice as long as normal. So it all evens out in the end, right? In case it doesn't, I'm already working on the next chapter, hopefully I can get it out by the end of the week. Anyway, enough rambling. I like kudos! I like comments too! So leave 'em both if you're so inclined. But above all, stay safe, stay sane, and try to stay home as much as possible! Ciao!


	10. The Hounds of Zaroff

“Alright, Mr… Riva, was it? What kind of proposition could you possibly have to interest me?” Gargan replied. He was still imprisoned, of course. He got Dusted just like half of all other life in the known universe. When he ‘returned’ he found his cell was already occupied. That was fun. Awkward sudden reappearances aside, he still had substantial pull with the remaining Maggia’s and as such, he had certain privileges that most inmates didn’t. Like unlimited video chat with the outside, for example.

Will Riva stroked his moustache nervously, suddenly overcome with trepidation. He really had nothing against Peter Parker, or his alias as Spider-man. In fact, his daughter was a fan. But… He needed to provide for said daughter, who he hadn’t seen in months. So, with a very heavy heart, he made up his mind. “Mr. Gargan, as I understand it, you still want a certain web slinging superhero dead, correct?” 

That got Mac ‘Scorpion’ Gargan’s attention real damn quick. “Of course I still want that freak’s skull bashed in. And how can you help me with that?”

William swallowed. He was really going to do this… “I can tell you who he is, who he _really_ is…”

“Gimme proof and a name, and fifty million goes into a bank account of your choice.” Gargan growled.

“I will, as soon as you forward one hundred fifty million to a certain bank account…” William countered.

“One hundred fifty million of a name and proof, you really think I’d pay that kind of money for that?” Gargan said with narrowed eyes.

“I know how much you want the kid dead. I also know there are plenty of other people who want the same thing…”

Gargan sighed, “Fine. And I’ll give you another fifty million on top of that to make sure _I’m_ the only one who gets to know the identity of our favorite friendly neighborhood web-head.”

William smiled as he saw two hundred million dollars deposited into his offshore account. He smiled, despite the overwhelming feeling of nausea.

“Spider-man is a highschooler at Midtown School of Science and Technology. His name is Peter Parker… and here’s the proof.” And with that, William Riva forwarded the video and image files, everything Quentin compiled as proof. 

Gargan must have played the video files, because he suddenly smiled like a hyena. “Well, Riva… Pleasure doing business with you… Now if you excuse me, I have a spider to squash…”

William cut the video call, keenly aware of the fact that he just sentenced Peter, and pretty much everyone the kid knew, to an untimely death...

* * *

MJ fingered the glass dahlia necklace through her shirt. She really did prefer it broken, but the sharp edges of the broken glass were… sharp edges. She cut herself and her clothes on it on more than one occasion, forcing her to keep it as a decorative piece in her room. Then Ned suggested perhaps fixing it in the kintsugi style, fusing the broken shards to the rest of the pendant with a special lacquer mixed with silver dust. It still looked lovely and broken, but now it wouldn’t cut her. And just to make sure it wouldn’t break again, she had Shuri coat it in a special protective clear coat. Who knew the Wakandans figured out how to make a vibranium compound that dried perfectly transparent?

In any case, she held the now practically indestructible flower pendant to her chest. May told her what Peter had to do to afford the glass piece from a master Venician glass worker. As much as she loved Peter’s thoughtfulness, him selling his entire vintage figure collection… didn’t sit right with her.

Which is why she currently found herself pacing the aisles of a certain collector’s shop with a list, looking for every single piece. After the world’s most frustrating scavenger hunt, she finally found the fifty seven figures Peter sold. Every. Single. One. She bought them all back, using her entire savings of two years worth of art commissions. 

She smirked to herself. Christmas was right around the corner, and she was pretty sure she had just gotten Peter the perfect gifts… But then again… They were things he already owned. Maybe he’d appreciate an addition to his collection. Then she saw him… Boba Fett, in his original packaging, sitting on a prized shelf near the countertop.

“How much for him?” MJ asked.

She nearly had a coronary when she heard the asking price. But of course, she bought it anyway. MJ held the shoebox under her arm as she left the little collector’s shop to meet her mom at a nearby parking garage. 

And that was when she smelled it. A coppery, metallic smell. One that she had come to know very well. Blood. It would be literally imperceptible for most people, but her sense of smell had also been enhanced by her somewhat recent acquisition of spider-powers.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose. The smell was coming from somewhere in the alleyway to the left… MJ opened her eyes and cautiously glanced down the alley. Tucked in the shadows of the tall buildings was a person who… well, if they _didn’t_ want to look inconspicuous, they were doing an absolutely terrible job. For one, they wore a heavy trench coat, and a wide brimmed hat that kind of reminded MJ of Indiana Jones’ iconic headwear. To top it all off, their eyes were obscured with the largest pair of mirrorshades MJ had ever seen. 

Even though he was staring at MJ from the alley across a four lane street, MJ could see with her extremely acute vision that the person had some kind of open lesions dotting their face. Her mystery watcher seemed to realize the jig was up and turned away. As they did so, their body was wracked with a horrific sounding cough. The blood sent got stronger, MJ wrinkling her nose in mild disgust. The person was obviously infected with _something_ or else probably had some kind of lung infection, judging by the fact the smell got more pronounced as the mystery person hacked. 

The person hobbled away, deeper into the alleyway. More than thoroughly creeped out, MJ continued down the street to the parking garage.

“Did you find them all?” Monica asked as her daughter plopped into the passenger seat of their old hatchback.

MJ rattled the shoebox of figures, “Yup. Got ‘em all.” She neglected to tell her mother of her little addition...

“You didn’t have to use your personal savings, baby girl. I would have paid for them for you,” Monica said as she pulled out of the parking garage.

Michelle gave her mom the side-eye. “Yeah, but then it wouldn’t be as thoughtful, now would it?” Besides, she doubted she would have shelled out for Boba Fett.

Monica chuckled, “I guess not…”

“Can you hide these in your closet until I figure out how to package and wrap these?” Michelle asked, passing the shoebox to her mom as she shouldered the strap to her overnight bag.

“Sure, whatever. Remember, actually do your weekend assignments! I better not hear from May that she’s caught you doing homework at 4 am Monday morning… again!”

“I’ll get ‘em done, don’t worry,” Michelle called over her shoulder as she approached Peter and May’s apartment complex.

MJ’s enhanced hearing picked up sounds from Peter’s place, subconsciously filtering out the sounds from the surrounding apartments. Before she even got to the stairwell, she heard May pick up her keys, ostensibly to start her shift at the hospital. And Peter, well, judging by the creaking from his ceiling, he was just crawling in from a short after-school patrol.

“Hey, right on time! Work called, they need me in for an emergency graveyard. Money for dinner is on the counter,” May said as she shouldered her lab coat on.

“Well, I’ll try to have breakfast ready for you when you get off work, but,” MJ gestured to her belly, “Brat’s been keeping me up at night, so no promises.”

“You don’t have to do that for me,” May gave her a quick side hug, “Peter should be home in a bit, and remember to do your weekend homework at some point? Preferably before Sunday.”

Michelle rolled her eyes, “Will do…”

And with that, May left. So, Peter hadn’t let May know he was home already. That was odd. Then she caught another whiff of blood and understood why.

* * *

She burst into Peter’s room, expecting the worst. What she found wasn’t _good_ per se, but it was far better than running in to find her boyfriend bleeding out. Peter was out of his suit and down to his boxers, sitting awkwardly on his bed because there happened to be a thumb-sized hole in his thigh. MJ almost dry heaved. The coppery tang was totally overpowering, but she pushed through it for the sake of her boyfriend.

“What happened?!” MJ cried as she knelt next to a grievously injured Peter.

Peter winced, dropping the tweezers he was trying to use to pry out the bullet. “Some gang tried to bust into an armored bank truck. One of them was smart and hid under it before I even showed up. They waited until I webbed up their buddies. I… might have dropped my guard and they got me close up with a shotgun slug.” Peter’s suit was mostly bulletproof… mostly. High calibre rounds or point blank shots could still occasionally punch through. 

MJ cringed as she picked up the bloody tweezers off the floor. She wiped them down with alcohol swabs before taking a deep breath to steady her hands. She internally counted to three, then started digging around the bullet wound. 

“Holy shit, this went in deep…” MJ whispered as she really had to root around for the lead shot. 

“Y-yup…” Peter grunted squeezing his bed railing hard enough to leave finger marks in the solid steel frame. “G-got stopped by b-bone I think- AH!”

“Got it…” MJ winced, holding the thumb sized slug between the tongs of the tweezers. The slug mushroomed, obviously from hitting Peter’s femur. “Now what?” She asked as she dropped it into a nearby dish.

Peter slumped against the bedrail, catching his breath back. “C-can you stitch it up? It doesn’t have to be pretty, just closed. My healing factor will take care of the rest.”

It wasn’t an ideal way to spend her Friday night, Michelle had to admit, but she didn’t mind helping Peter recover. 

“You know what, I think I’m getting the hang of this,” MJ said… as she literally sewed the last stitch. Oh well, at least she had decent practice for the next time Peter needed to be patched together. Not that she was hoping for it, of course, but it was inevitable in Peter’s line of work.

“It’s f-fine. L-like I said, it d-doesn’t have to be pretty…” Peter sighed as the painkillers he took a while ago finally started to kick in.

“You know, I don’t mind getting the practice in,” MJ said as she packed away the first aid kit, “But I think May would have done a much better job, given her profession…”

“Yeah, I know, but I didn’t want to worry her…” Peter’s eyes widened, “Not that I don’t like worrying you about this kind of stuff either, it’s just…”

“It’s fine,” MJ sighed. “I need to get used to this kind of stuff anyway, all things considered.” She gestured to the blood stained sheets and carpet, “But I don’t exactly know how to clean all this up…”

Peter groaned, turning on his side so he could reach his backpack. “Here, spray this on the floor,” he said as he tossed her a small spray can. “It’ll break the blood down and keep it from staining the carpet,” he explained. “Throw the sheets in the wash with this,” he said, passing her what looked like a generic laundry pod, though knowing him, it probably had some super advanced detergent or something.

Floor blood stain free and sheets in the wash, MJ finally allowed herself to run to the bathroom to throw up. She wasn’t squeamish or anything, it was just the smell of blood really, _really_ didn’t agree with her. When she finally left the bathroom she found Peter fast asleep, obviously knocked out by the copious amounts of painkillers he took earlier.

* * *

It was only eight pm, so she wasn’t anywhere near tired herself. One, because it was a bit early for her, and two, she was still riding all that adrenaline. She needed to calm down a bit before bed, so MJ decided to prop herself up with as many pillows as she could find and get a head start on their required reading. Peter could sleep through anything, so of course the soft light of his bedside lamp wouldn’t bother him.

MJ smiled to herself as Peter snuggled up to her in his sleep. She idly ran her fingers through his sweat soaked curls as he pressed his head to her belly, eternally thankful that Peter only suffered a bit of blood loss and a fractured femur. She obviously preferred him totally uninjured after patrols, but considering how dangerously he lived, stuff like this was bound to happen. And it could have been worse… much, much worse.

Even though their parents were settling in for the night, their baby didn’t really get this whole ‘winding down’ thing. They incessantly wiggled in their mama’s womb, keeping MJ from being able to concentrate on her reading. They were probably still freaked out from all the adrenaline still coursing through MJ’s veins. 

“O-oh, ow-ow-ow. Hey baby. It’s okay sweetie. Mommy and daddy have everything under control now, you’re okay baby,” MJ soothed, rubbing her belly in a vain attempt to calm her kid. The only reply she got was another barrage of punches and kicks. “Okay, okay, I know what’ll help. Give mommy a minute.”

She stuffed her worn copy of _The Most Dangerous Game_ back in her backpack, and dug around for something more suitable to read aloud to her still panicking baby.

“Oof- okay, okay, baby. I got a storybook right here.” Michelle murmured as she got settled in. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” she began to read. “Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort…” And almost like magic, her baby calmed down within the first couple lines.

She read aloud for a good three hours, making up silly voices for all the dwarves, and generally reading with a mystical, storyteller kind of inflection. Standard ‘reading to a kid’ stuff really. Only her baby wasn’t even born yet. But nevertheless, it just went to show that it was never too early to start reading to a kid. 

Eventually the activity in her womb slowed down to the faintest flutters. MJ could hear the baby’s heartbeat slow a bit as it drifted asleep. “There we go baby, sleepy time,” She whispered, yawning to herself. She waited a bit to make sure her baby was fast asleep, before turning to turn off the lamp.

“Y’make a real good Gandalf…” Peter murmured as he shifted to wrap his arms around her belly.

“Eh, I try,” MJ smirked as she snuggled up to him and began to drift away…

* * *

“ _Bless us and splash us, my precioussss! I guess it's a choice feast; at least a tasty morsel it'd make us, gollum!"_ Michelle’s best Gollum impression came from a military grade speaker system. “ _And when he said gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat. That is how he got his name, though he always called himself 'my precious.'”_

Sergei Kravinoff rolled his eyes, thoroughly fed up with the _three hour_ impromptu reading his quarry’s girlfriend engaged in. He took another drag from his cigarette, leaning back in his chair. He rubbed his temple in frustration and turned off the speakers. He didn’t know why he kept listening in after he got the information he needed. He had hoped they’d let something else slip, but he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to get any other snippets of useful information from the girl’s rendition of _The Hobbit._

His plan so far was a stroke of uncommon genius, if he did say so himself. It was relatively simple to hire a common street gang to hit an armored bank truck. Of course, he had no use for whatever the bank truck contained. His real goal was to draw out Spider-man, obviously. No, all he needed was for one of them to hit him with a specially made shotgun slug.

Not only did it have a built in GPS tracker, but also had a very small but especially durable microphone as well. He knew where Peter Parker lived, of course, but he wanted to get some additional info on his quarry before he started the hunt proper. And what information did he get! He had some inkling that Peter had a girlfriend, but he had no idea she was pregnant. That was especially… illuminating information to have. It certainly did complicate his current job.

Gargan had approached him one random December day with an offer for a hit so extravagantly high that Kravinoff couldn’t possibly refuse. Two hundred million dollars for the head of one Peter Parker, AKA… Spider-man. And another hundred million wired into his bank account just to keep that bit of information to himself. Of course, Kravinoff took the job. 

If Kravinoff had any moral hang ups with murdering a teenager, years of mercenary work and assassinations had silenced any conscience he once had. He was totally fine with killing a kid. Then he found out the kid was having a kid himself. And that... that did give Sergei some pause. He didn’t quite know how he felt about killing a teen parent… That wasn’t a situation he ever found himself in. 

Then he had a thought. There were rumors that Spider-man was the product of a Stark genetic experiment. And if that were true, the likelihood that the child of Spider-man might inherit some of his abilities was fairly high. And even if they didn’t inherit any of his iconic powers, the clues to Spider-man’s genetic modifications might be found in their DNA. As defunct as they were, he still knew HYDRA was still somewhat active. And he knew they’d pay through the nose for the kid; either to raise as their own super-soldier, or to reverse engineer the genetic alterations. 

Whatever ethical and moral hang ups Kraven the Hunter had about this job, that thought settled it. Gargan had already promised enough money for him to comfortably retire. With the bonus that he was bound to get from HYDRA, he’d have enough to retire _and_ ensure that his life of less-than-savory work wouldn’t come back to haunt him.

With that in mind, he began to plan. He was renowned for his ability to silently track and assassinate any target. But this was Spider-man he was planning on killing. From all the news clips and classified government documents he’d stolen, he knew that his quarry possessed generally enhanced senses, superhuman durability and possibly even an enhanced healing factor. All of that meant that Kravinoff had to be especially careful in his planning. 

It took him the rest of the night, but he drafted something he thought relatively fool proof. His plan would take awhile to come into fruition. But that was fine. This was the biggest job of his life, after all. He wouldn’t fuck it all up by being too hasty. In any case, his years of hunting both animal and man alike had taught him a set of cardinal rules, chief of which was patience...

* * *

MJ browsed the aisles of a local co-op grocery store near Peter’s place. Her injured boyfriend was still sleeping off his bullet wound, and May was so tired from a long shift that all she could do was smile and say ‘good morning’ before heading straight to bed. That left MJ alone to do whatever she wanted for the day.

She could have spent it by doing homework and being generally responsible… but that was boring. So instead, she hopped in an Uber and decided to help the Parkers fill out their pantry a little bit. 

“Overpriced, overpriced, _really_ overpriced,” MJ muttered to herself as she strolled through the store. “Gluten free, gluten free… Why is everything gluten free! Like, there can’t be _that_ many celiacs in the world...” Okay, she had to admit, she came here mostly to heckle the gimmicky products. But there were _some_ things she genuinely wanted to get, mostly fresh produce.

After thoroughly and mercilessly mocking the more strange products and their insane prices, she continued through the store to the produce section. Or rather, she would have if she didn’t get distracted by-

“Candy…” Okay, if there was one thing the store had going for it, it was it’s candy aisle. There was a whole section devoted to regional US candies, another for imports, and a huge selection of ridiculously expensive small batch chocolates. It was everything MJ ever wanted in life, and more.

See, MJ normally didn’t have the biggest sweet tooth, but since her pregnancy she had found herself almost gorging on sweets on a regular basis. It was enough that her mother had her tested for gestational diabetes. Thankfully _that_ test came up negative. She postulated she had Peter and her newfound powers to thank for that. Because honestly… she did have a bit of a problem. She eventually did ask Peter about it. Turns out, fantastic strength and durability came with a massive metabolic cost, and sugar was the easiest way to get the calories needed to sustain their superhuman strength. 

“Okay, where to begin…” MJ decided that thirty bucks worth of candy wasn’t extravagant. It was a medical necessity, really. Honestly. The only problem was the selection was almost _too_ expansive. Then she had an idea…

“Hey, _psst!_ Baby! Wake up in there!” She poked her belly for emphasis. Walking a lot often lulled her baby to sleep. And normally she’d be content to let them sleep, but now she needed her baby’s help.

“Gu~uh…” MJ shuddered and arched her back. Her baby must have been royally pissed about being so rudely awakened, because they kicked hard enough for their tiny baby foot to be visible through MJ’s belly. “Ow! Sorry, sorry, but it's for a good reason, promise. Help mommy choose what kind of candy to get, okay?”

She picked up a random chocolate bar and pressed it against her tummy. After a moment of absolute silence, she put it back. “This one’s a no-go, huh? How about this one?” Then she picked up another one and did the same drill. This time she got a flurry of what she assumed were excited punches. “Oh, you like this one. Okay, what about this?”

This went on for an embarrassingly long time. The kid seemed to have a penchant for belgian small batch chocolate, black currant boiled sweets, and french salt butter caramel. Her baby wasn’t _actually_ helping her choose candy, of course. Their movements were random coincidence, obviously. But they did somehow help MJ make up her mind. And anyway, there wasn’t anything MJ was particularly against.

“Oh, you really want the matcha Kit-kats, huh? Alright, I’ll add it to the… pile…” She trailed off as her nose was absolutely _assaulted_ by the reeking stench of blood and other viscera. 

Panicked, she glanced around, expecting to see the bloodied remains of some poor person lying on the floor. Instead of that gory scene, she found herself curiously alone in the aisle… Wait, she wasn’t alone after all. Out of the corner of her eye she spied someone staring at her from the end of the aisle. They were peeking out from behind a tower of toilet paper, the same person she saw spying on her from when she left the collectors shop, still decked out in their ‘I’m not spying on you, I swear’ getup.

Deciding hanging around in a mostly empty store with that weirdo was probably not the greatest idea, MJ strolled over to the checkout, trying to be as casual as possible. She trained her super hearing to just behind her and… yup, whoever they were, they were definitely following her.

She made it to the cash register without incident, thankfully. Well, mostly without incident.

MJ noticed the college aged cashier staring at her candy haul. “What?”

“Nothing, ma’am,” The girl replied. “That’s just… a lot of expensive candy.”

“Yes, yes it is,” MJ nodded. “Unfortunately, the kiddo has expensive tastes,” MJ said as she nervously stroked her belly.

“Oh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t even notice! You carry it so well…” 

MJ engaged the cashier in a bit of small talk as she rang her up. All the while she had her senses trained on whoever was tailing her. Sure as shit, they were hiding out in the vitamin aisle, ‘surreptitiously’ watching her. MJ shot the breeze with the cashier a little longer than was probably socially acceptable. She hoped it would put her ‘observer’ off and they’d leave her alone, but she had no such luck.

Eventually Michelle left the store, thoroughly freaked out by her creepy stalker. MJ couldn’t just stand around the store, and she didn’t wanna drag the cashier into it, but MJ didn’t wanna just stand around the mostly empty storefront either. So with her arm hooked through her bag of goodies she briskly walked down the mostly deserted street, hoping to come to eventually find a sidewalk with more foot traffic. 

All the while she kept her overdeveloped hearing trained on the footsteps following her. It quickly became clear that whoever was following her wasn’t going to stop. If anything, she was fairly certain he was gaining on her.

By now MJ was pretty deeply entrenched in a ‘fight or flight’ mentality. She really didn’t want to get in a dust up. For one, she wasn’t _entirely_ confident in her ability to reserve her strength if it really came down to a fight. As creepy as the guy was, she didn’t wanna see them grievously injured or outright dead. Secondly, as strong as she was, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t be hurt. And normally that wouldn’t really bother her, but there was more than her well being on the line and the last thing she wanted to do was put her baby in jeopardy. But for fucks sake, the guy just wouldn’t let up! 

He literally was almost treading on her heels by now. MJ made up her mind. There was a narrow alleyway just a few steps away… She quickly ducked into it, waiting a split second to pull her stalked in with her. MJ slammed them against the brick wall, easily pinning their hands.

“Alright, I’m gonna give you five seconds to explain before I knock out teeth, you creep,” MJ growled, before dry heaving. Holy fuck, the guy absolutely _reeked_ of blood. Now she was sure that he was some kind of crazy serial killer or something, because open sores or not, no one, absolutely _no one_ naturally smelled that strongly of blood.

To her absolute shock, the guy almost easily wrenched his arms free of her grip. This was bad. She was banking her win on her superhuman strength, never expecting the guy to be stronger than her. MJ tensed up, ready to fight for her life… 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first thing's first! I'm really, really sorry about the extended time between chapters. Sheltering in place has really gotten to me and I had a the worst case of writer's block. But I pushed past it eventually, hence the chapter. I'm going to try my best to update more regularly, at a chapter at least every two weeks. But I make no promises, honestly... Anyway, enough with that. I think I've kept you fine people long enough. Please comment. I love comments. If you want me to update more regularly, comments are the best way to encourage that. Good or bad, I don't really care. Anywho, stay safe, stay sane, yadda yadda yadda, see you next time!


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